Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Zankita slowly stopped his own fantasies and looked at his cell phone. Only several seconds later did he finally pick up the call.

  "Yo. It's me.

  "Yeah, I'm currently here.

  "What do you want to discuss?"

  That was Zankita's half of the conversation. Something flashed in his eyes as he listened to Hisashi's words. However, his face remained expressionless.

  Zankita slowly put down his cell phone after the conversation ended.

  He once again focused on the fireball before him before waving his hand and causing it to vanish.

  After Seiji and Hisashi reached the Juumonji Group residence, they split up, with Seiji heading towards the dojo.

  Although Hisashi said it was alright for him to listen in to their conversation if he wanted, Seiji felt that he shouldn't intrude in their family affairs too much.

  It would be best if Hisashi was able to convince Zankita with words alone, without having things come to a fight.

  Seiji was quite curious as well just what exactly happened to Zankita.

  Did Zankita really go to a Spirit World? Would there be any differences for the Awakened and Spiritual Ability users in a Spirit World? Hisashi's idea of a hypothetical group of people that might have contacted Zankita… did they really exist? And if they did, who were they, and what was their goal?

  Seiji patiently waited in the dojo.

  A few minutes later, he heard the sound of footsteps.

  A red-haired man slowly walked into the dojo… by himself.

  Seiji exchanged glances with him.

  "Where's Hisashi?"

  "He's unconscious."

  "Did you do that to him?"

  "That's right."

  Seiji furrowed his eyebrows.

  "I didn't think you were the type of person who'd hit his own brother."

  "I thought the same of myself just a few minutes ago."

  Zankita smiled widely.

  His smile had something indescribable about it… something negative and dark.

  "But actually, when I really hit him, I found out that it wasn't much of a big deal at all. So what if he's my little brother? Even if he's my family, if he makes me displeased… I'll act on my displeasure." A dark look entered Zankita's eyes. "Why should I be restrained by such things? My younger brother… my father… the Juumonji Group… all these things used to be really important to me, but that was all just a mistaken impression I had due to my own weakness. Now, I'm someone strong, far beyond their level… why should I still care about them and allow them to hold me back? No… I don't need such things… I don't need to be like how I was before. I shouldn't have to be like before!"

  Zankita reached out his hand and summoned a blue flame that illuminated his face which was becoming distorted.

  "I'm someone powerful, someone special! I should be… free!"

  His flame instantly burned even fiercer than earlier.

  Seiji slowly stood up as he looked at Zankita.

  "You want to be free…? What comes after that? What do you want the freedom to do?"

  "Does it even need saying? Of course, to become stronger!"

  "Why do you want to become stronger?"

  "As long as I'm strong, I can do anything I want!" Zankita shouted loudly. "Strength is everything!!"

  Seiji was rendered speechless.

  He really wanted to make a comment here, but there was so much to comment on that he didn't even know where to start.

  Just as he was thinking about how to retort, he saw Zankita suddenly waving his hand, causing the flames on his hand to transform into a fireball which shot in Seiji's direction!

  Seiji dodged the fireball which crashed into the ground and exploded with a loud boom.

  "I lost twice to you before. This time… I'll definitely win!"

  Zankita's entire body erupted with blue flames as he rushed over and punched at Seiji.

  Seiji dodged the first few of Zankita's punches and attacks. Seiji then stepped forward and landed a strong punch upon Zankita's stomach area!

  It felt as if he had punched a steel board.

  Also, the flames on Zankita's body attacked him at the same time as he managed to land the punch. If it wasn't for the fact that Seiji cast [Mana Barrier] on himself beforehand, he would have definitely been injured with burns.

  Zankita who was wreathed in blue flames merely backed up two steps from receiving Seiji's heavy punch before continuing to attack Seiji again!

  Zankita had indeed become much stronger.

  Seiji remained calm during the fight. He aimed for Zankita's unguarded areas and managed to strike him with a Mana-infused punching technique.

  Zankita roared and gathered two fireballs, one in each hand, tossing them at Seiji!

  *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*

  Seiji dodged both fireballs, but he was unable to dodge Zankita's kick that came together with the fireballs, and took a vicious direct hit.

  *Boom!* Blue flames exploded.

  Although Seiji jumped backwards the moment he was kicked to mitigate the impact, he was still kicked backwards by an explosive force that sent him flying across half the dojo field and crashing into the wall.

  Zankita stomped, causing fire to spark underneath his feet, and rushed at Seiji with an astonishing speed like a rocket's. In just an instant, he covered the distance of half a dojo field to punch towards Seiji's chest!

  *Boom!!!*

  Seiji was able to dodge this punch in time. This viciously heavy punch struck the wall instead, causing fierce flames to explode and create a large cone-shaped hole.

  Every mafia member in the residence heard this commotion.

  The unconscious Hisashi was woken up by the noise as well.

  He did his best to withstand the pain in his throbbing head while ordering all the mafia grunts not to approach the dojo and for anyone nearby to immediately get away from the vicinity!

  Meanwhile, inside the dojo…


  Another fireball came flying towards Seiji.

  Seiji once again dodged all the fireballs and sent a [Mana Bullet] towards Zankita who was wreathed in flames while trying to attack him!

  *Boom!* Zankita took a direct hit and was knocked over.

  Seiji suddenly jumped upwards, stepped upside-down on the ceiling, and used the reactive force to help him launch a powerful stomping attack!

  *Boom!*

  …Zankita dodged this attack.

  When Zankita backflipped and got up, he once again gathered his power in his hands, then suddenly opened his hands wide and released a tremendous amount of blue flames!

  Seiji speedily backed up, then suddenly realized that this seemed exactly like the ultimate attack of one of the main characters from the King of Fighters franchise?

  He recalled that the character was named Kyo Kusanagi or something like that…


  Zankita clenched his fists tightly, causing them to glow blue with fire, then rushed and punched at Seiji, creating a large explosive flame with his punch at the same time!

  Seiji found his attack difficult to block and continued to retreat.

  When Seiji was continually forced to retreat and found himself in a corner of the dojo with nowhere left to retreat to, he suddenly realized that things were bad.

  As expected, Zankita who was literally on fire once again clasped his hands, gathered the power of his flames, and released…


  *Roar!* A tremendous amount of flames that resembled a beast's gaping maw swallowed Seiji whole!!

  'I've won!!' Zankita was shouting in his mind.

  However, before he could enjoy the taste of victory, he saw a golden flash and a fist approaching his face…


  *Smack!!*

  Seiji had cast [Evolved Body-strengthening technique] on himself in time and transformed into his golden form to send Zankita flying away with a single punch in counterattack.

  'Round 2… fight!

  'Even if you are Kyo Kusanagi, I'm a Super Saiyan, so I shall defeat you!'

  Seiji kept up a stream of mental comments while chasing after Zankita to keep up the attack.

  Zankita originally thought that he had won, but suddenly found himself at a disadvantage instead… he was quite angered by this.

  He did his very best, but his golden and shiny opponent was simply better than him, and was now forcefully suppressing him.

  'Why… I'm so strong already, so why is it that I still can't defeat this guy!?'

  Zankita wanted to furiously counterattack. However, Seiji's succession of powerful punches completely broke through his flame defense and gave him a vicious beatdown.

  Zankita's consciousness became hazy.

  The last thing that he saw was the sight of the shiny golden teenager calmly observing him.

  Anger, unwillingness, and hatred… Zankita sunk into a darkness while possessing such extremely negative emotions.

  'I want more… more power…'

  His consciousness sunk even deeper and deeper into the darkness.

  "Hmm?"

  Seiji watched Zankita collapse while being under the impression that the flames on Zankita's body would naturally be extinguished. However, he saw that Zankita's blue flames were gradually becoming black in color.

  "What's going on?" Seiji had an ominous premonition.

  He was fairly confident that he had knocked Zankita unconscious… should he give him another blow just in case?

  Seiji speedily came to a decision and controlled his strength so that he wouldn't severely injure Zankita while stomping on him one more time.

  However, the flames were still becoming darker and darker.

  The rate of blackening was increasing as well. The black flames were beginning to gather and take form!

  Seiji frowned as he observed the situation.

  In just a short period of time, the blue man on fire became something else entirely.

  He became something black and abnormal… with such a strange appearance that it was difficult to describe.

  "Even if this is something akin to an evil transformation… isn't this a little too dark?"