Sumato lies, bleeding on the arena floor, gritting his teeth against the searing pain.
"This wound⦠Itâs freaking painful. If I knew he would pull this, I wouldâve ended it ten minutes ago. Damn it⦠Guess I have to try a little."
Slowly, Sumato forced himself to his feet, his body trembling under the strain.
Across the battlefield, Castimore turned, smirking.
âWell, well. Still got the gall to stand? Whereâs all that smiling and laughing now?â
Sumato chuckled weakly, his breathing ragged.
âThis fight⦠will go down as my victory," he said.
Castimoreâs smirk twisted into a sneer. He raised his hand like a gun and pulled the imaginary triggerâ
BANG.
In a blink, Sumatoâs right leg was blasted clean off.
Sumato staggered but didnât fall. Instead, he stared at the gushing wound, a slow grin forming on his bloodied face.
"Too easy," he muttered under his breath.
In an instant, Shinen energy surged into his remaining left leg, and BOOMâSumato shot forward, faster than the speed of sound, a blur to the naked eye.
The crowd gasped.
Castimoreâs eyes widened in disbelief as he fired shot after shot, but Sumato weaved through them effortlessly, each movement a flash of defiance.
As he closed the distance, Sumato laughed.
"Fat bullets, huh? Very interesting ability youâve got. I thought it would be against the rules⦠but I get it now."
He struck Castimore across the face with a brutal swingâor so it seemed.
When the dust cleared, Castimore was no longer towering above Sumato.
He was tiny. No bigger than a pixie.
From the stands, a booming voiceâMizokushiâsâechoed across the arena:
"Castimore! You are disqualified! Advanced Shinen Affinities are forbidden!"
But Castimore wasnât done.
With a howl of rage, he slammed himself into the ground, Shinen flaring violently. He activated a forbidden Miscellaneous Shinen technique, consuming his life force and protein reserves to restore his body.
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He re-emerged, his body grotesquely bloated, one arm as massive as a bus.
"If Iâm going down..." Castimore growled, raising his colossal hand, "then you donât deserve to live!"
From the monster-sized bazooka slung over his shoulder, he charged a final, supercharged Fatty Bullet, its sheer mass warping the air around it.
Sumato exhaled deeply.
"No choice, then."
He reached to his side with shaky fingers and drew his Shinen weapon.
The sword Sermonta gleamed wickedlyâa jagged-edged blade whose hilt wore a permanent demonic smile.
Sumato slammed Sermontaâs edge against the groundâonce, twice, three times.
Each strike sent a pulse of white light through the battlefield.
Then, he crouched low, chanting, "This is my Shinen weapon, Sermonta... and you're going to taste his UPROAR!"
In a flash, every wound on Sumato's body sealed shutânot healed, but completely erased.
He leaped, slashing forward with all his might.
Sermontaâs Uproar collided with Castimoreâs Fatty Bullet.
BOOOOOOOM.
The arena exploded.
The impact left a 50Ã50Ã50 meter crater, a massive shockwave twice as strong as Nozuchiâs, rattling the entire grounds.
When the dust finally settled, Sumato lay unconscious at the craterâs edgeâalive but motionless.
Castimore⦠was nowhere to be found.
Flashback: Years Ago
Sumato remembered.
He remembered the screams, the fear, and the despair.
How he and his sister, Chizuna, had gone out for groceriesâonly to be ambushed by a gang of thugs.
He had fought to protect her, but he was just a boy.
They beat him within an inch of his life.
Barely conscious, he heard Chizunaâs cries.
Felt her terror.
He felt helplessness consume him.
And then, something inside him snapped.
His Shinen WeaponâSermontaâwhich should have awakened seven years prior, erupted forth.
Its jagged, cruel form mirrored the storm of rage inside him.
Uproar activated for the first time, taking all the accumulated damage and kinetic energy he had endured and turning it into a devastating, violent slash.
The thugs never stood a chance.
In that moment, Sumato didnât just fight for survivalâhe found his pride.
He found his will to protect.
He wasnât just a "late bloomer."
He was a monster born of love and fury.
Back to the Present
Sumatoâs eyes fluttered open.
A soft warmth pressed against him.
He glimpsed the face of a girl, her arms wrapped tightly around his battered body.
"Who...?" he wondered, before blacking out again.
When he awoke properly, he found himself lying in the sterile light of the school infirmary.
His body was bandaged, aching but alive.
He sat up slowly, scanning the roomâand froze.
A shadowy figure stood silently at the end of the bed, watching him.
Its shape was humanoid... but wrong somehow.
The edges of its body shimmered unnaturally.
Sumatoâs throat dried.
âH-Hey⦠Who are you?â he croaked out.
The figure didnât move for a heartbeat.
Then, with slow, deliberate steps, it began to walk toward him.
It spoke only one word, its voice distorted like a broken radio:
"WHY?"