Miso had perched up on another building camera trained deep into the fight. "One, two, three, four, just how much magic can you use mystery guy?!" She says as she watches closer.
"What was his name again, I read it at that tavern. It was..... Kaito." Musi wondered as she watched the fight between Kaito and Renji. "You're about to get us famous Mr, Kaito."
Renji barely had time to react.
Kaito's fist, blazing with fire and frost, collided with Renji's guard, and shattered it. The sound rang like a bell cracked down the middle. Renji staggered backward, surprise flickering across his face for the first time.
The marble beneath them exploded from the force of Kaito's step. He didn't let up.
Nyla watched on, clutching her necklace.
A second strike, wind-infused, hurled Renji across the hall and into a crumbling wall. Dust billowed outward as rubble collapsed over him.
Kaito landed softly, magic thrumming in his veins, his eyes glowing with a radiant light. His breathing was steady now. Controlled.
Renji emerged from the rubble, battered, blood running down his temple. His perfect composure cracked.
"You think this changes anything?" he growled, summoning energy again. "You think awakening some fancy magic changes the world?!"
"No," Kaito said. "But it feels good!"
He raised his hand, ice formed, jagged and sharp, then swirled with fire and wind before solidifying into a blade
"And right now, I finally end this."
Renji roared and lunged, his entire arm wreathed in crackling purple energy, the last of his power surging forth. But Kaito met him halfway, and struck first.
Time slowed.
Kaito's punch landed straight into Renji's chest, not brute force, but essence. His will. A direct channeling of every reason he stood up again, his friends, his belief, his defiance of the world's cruelty.
The magic ruptured outward.
BOOM.
Light engulfed the hall. The screen above shattered. Pillars cracked. The banners of the guild ripped from the force.
When it cleared, Renji lay on the floor, barely conscious, arm twitching, breath ragged.
Kaito stood over him, burned and bruised, but alive.
"It's over," he said, quietly. "You lost."
Renji spat blood, eyes wild. "You think… they'll let you win? The Empire. The Coalition. The whole world is designed to break people like you."
Kaito knelt beside him, eyes calm. "Then we'll break it back."
Kaito's group all arrived at the top floor, tired. The sight of Renji down bringing a bit of relief to them.`
Renji rose from the cracked floor, blood dripping from his lip, fury in his eyes.
Around his guild hall, the last of his underlings lay unconscious or groaning in defeat burned out, weapons shattered, pride gone. The guild hall was a ruin of flame, broken stone, and floating embers.
Renji's eyes swept over the bodies of his fallen allies with pure disgust.
"Useless," he spat. "Every one of you, YOU'RE ALL USELESS!"
He kicked aside the memories of one of his closest lieutenants. "I trained you all myself. Gave you power. Purpose. And this-" he pointed to Kaito and the others, still standing despite their wounds, "this is what breaks you?"
He snarled in pure rage. "A group of nobodies?!"
He turned back to Kaito, voice low and dangerous. "Fine. If I can't count on them, I'll take everything from you instead."
Kaito's stance tightened, wary.
Renji's lips curled into a bitter smile. "Let's see what your little team thinks when they find out who you really are."
"He's a Kaya."
The room froze.
Renji's voice dripped with venom. "There it is. Truth in its purest form. Your golden boy? The one you've been fighting beside this whole time?!"
He pointed straight at Kaito. "He's a member of the Kaya clan, the most evil people alive!"
Nyla's breath hitched. Her eyes widened in horror, not at the truth, but at what it might do.
The silence was suffocating. Kaito couldn't look at any of them. Shame, old and buried, of hiding the truth from them, clawed its way back up.
Renji's voice slithered between them. "Let's see how loyal your 'friends' really are."
But then.
Rika stepped forward. "A Kaya? That's your big reveal?"
Renji blinked.
Nanami shrugged. "We already knew there was something different. We just didn't care."
Dante chuckled, pushing off a broken pillar. "If anything, it explains why you've been carrying us half the time."
Toni grinned wide. "Better to fight beside a Kaya than some backstabbing snake."
Kaito looked up, stunned. Nyla covered her mouth, tears in her eyes, not from fear now, but relief. "They still stand with him, i'm glad."
He swallowed the lump in his throat. "You guys…"
Dante clapped him on the back. "Just end it man, you can tell us about it later."
The air changed.
Magic surged around Kaito again, wind curling around his legs, frost kissing the edges of his sleeves, fire flickering in the lines of his skin.
The reporter girl, still crouched in the wreckage with her holo-recorder running, whispered in awe.
"He's stabilizing four elements at once. Fire, wind, frost, enhancement. This is... this is beyond textbook spellcraft. For a low-tier. He's rewriting the rules."
Renji's lip curled as he charged, not for Kaito, but for Nanami.
"Coward!" Kaito shouted, launching himself forward.
Crack.
Renji's strike collided with Kaito's forearm, hard enough to bend it. Kaito screamed through gritted teeth, blocking the blow. His arm dropped, limp.
Renji smirked, thinking he had him.
But Kaito.
He stood again.
Bleeding. Bruised. But his eyes burned with that same impossible fury.
"You… just don't know when to stay down," Renji growled.
Kaito stood on one leg, his broken arm limp at his side, his breath ragged. His vision swam. He could feel the fire dimming in his limbs.
And still, Renji kept coming.
Another blast. Kaito dodged it by inches, stumbling. A kick came next, clipping his side and sending him sprawling again across the fractured floor.
He rolled to his knees, barely able to hold himself up.
His friends tried to step forward, but Kaito threw a hand out to stop them.
"No," he gasped. "I finish this."
Renji stalked forward. "You can't even stand."
Kaito surged forwards regardless. He blasts Renji into the air, high up above the guild hall.
Kaito's hand reached for the Air summoning one of his weapons, his bow.
The weapon pulsed faintly with power, like it had been waiting for him all this time. But it was massive, taller than he was, made for something more than just aim and skill.
This bow was ancient. Living. And it demanded more than strength.
It demanded everything.
Kaito gripped it and slowly dragged it into position, his good hand shaking as he lifted it into position.
"You think pulling a weapon's going to save you?" Renji snarled, charging again. Propelling himself through the air.
Kaito gritted his teeth.
He placed the bottom of the bow against his foot, steadied it with his knee. With his good arm out of commission, he reached across, awkwardly, painfully, with the other. But the string wouldn't budge.
He growled, teeth bared, and tried again.
Still nothing.
"Come on…" he whispered, sweat dripping down his temple.
Renji was getting closer.
Kaito dropped the bow for a moment. Took a breath. His whole body was trembling.
Then.
He flipped around mid-air.
Wrapped the bowstring around his teeth.
Used his good leg and shoulder to brace the curve of the bow. He bit down, hard, muscles screaming with effort.
Every fiber of his body wanted to give out. His neck strained. His broken arm spasmed. His ribs throbbed with every breath.
The bowstring trembled… then bent.
The weapon awakened.
Light bled from the core of the bow, flowing into the string. The arrow formed, no ordinary shaft, but a spear of raw elemental energy. Fire. Wind. Ice. Enhancement. All fused into one blinding, radiant point.
The reporter girl gasped audibly from the rubble, her mic trembling in her hands.
"He's… he's drawing it with his teeth. He's… actually doing it."
Renji stopped, eyes wide now, for the first time uncertain.
Kaito's teeth clenched tighter. Blood ran from the corners of his mouth.
But his aim was steady.
"I already told you before Renji, but let me tell you one more time, and tell the rest of the people from your generation!" Kaito snarled through the pain. "I'm getting my treasure, and if any of you get in my way!"
Kaito's friends smiled as he readied the words.
"I'LL RUN RIGHT THROUGH YOU!"
Renji roared and launched forward.
Kaito released.
The shot cracked the world.
The arrow tore through the air like a comet, screaming with raw magic. It didn't just fly, it shattered the air around it, a spiral of fire and frost trailing behind like a divine spear.
It struck Renji mid-charge.
Not lethal.
But devastating.
The blast slammed him into the ground, but this time, the ground broke with him. Stone exploded outward, and Renji's body crumpled in the debris, no more strength left to rise. His guild hall utterly destroyed.
Silence.
Kaito fell backwards, bow slipping from his grip, Free-falling back to the ground, chest rising and falling in slow, ragged breaths.
Then, hands. His friends. Nanami. Rika. Dante. Toni. Nyla. They all caught him.
They gathered around him, wide-eyed, speechless, stunned by what they'd just witnessed.
And Kaito, bloody, battered, barely holding on..... smiled.
The dust still hung in the air, heavy with magic and ash.
Kaito stood at the center of the ruined guild hall, his bow now resting at his side, his arm still limp, but his spirit unshaken. Around him, his friends stood tall, bruised, battered, but united.
And through the cracked wooden doors, a figure entered.
Nyla turned first, her eyes narrowing, then softening.
Her father stepped forward, limping, blood crusted at the corner of his mouth. The man who had once stood like a general now looked smaller, not weaker, but humbled.
He paused in front of Kaito, not meeting his eyes at first. When he finally did, it wasn't with authority.
It was with respect.
He dropped to one knee.
"I owe you an apology," he said quietly, voice rough and frayed.
Kaito didn't answer. He just listened.
"When I first looked at you, I didn't see a boy. I didn't see a person. I saw a threat."
His voice cracked slightly. "And instead of trying to understand that fear… I gave it power."
"I let my pride speak louder than reason. I thought protecting my daughter meant eliminating anything I couldn't control. I blamed you because it was easier than admitting I failed."
He looked up, eyes rimmed with pain, not from his wounds, but from shame.
"And yet, when it counted, when she needed someone, you were the one who stood between her and death. Not me."
He clenched his jaw. "You didn't just save her life, Kaito. You proved me wrong."
A pause.
Then, softer. "And I've never been more grateful to be wrong."
The hall was still. Kaito stared at him, unreadable.
"You don't owe me anything," the man added quickly. "I know that. I don't expect forgiveness."
He lowered his head.
"I just wanted you to know… I see you now. Not as a Kaya. Not as a weapon. But as the kind of man I hope my daughter continues to call friend."
There was silence.
Then, Kaito stood.
He didn't say anything. Didn't scold. Didn't gloat.
He simply extended his good hand.
The older man hesitated, then took it.
Kaito helped him to his feet.
That gesture said everything words couldn't.
A nod passed between them. A quiet understanding.
Behind Kaito, Nyla smiled, wiping a tear from her cheek.
"It's alright, I know my dad must've caused a lot of problems for you," Kaito says before smiling. "I'm just happy, this is over with."
And as her father turned to her, he rested a hand gently on her shoulder, not with authority, but with care.
Kaito turned to rejoin his friends, who waited just beyond the rubble, the golden light of morning beginning to spill through the broken ceiling above.
The fight was over.
"THAT LASTED ALL NIGHT?!" Rika shouts!