Blood & Fire

Koori ran through the main building of Nyansei High, following the pulsing mark that glowed beneath her white sports shirt.

A few students glanced after her in confusion as she rushed past them in the stairwell, but she paid them no attention and kept climbing.

“He’s in trouble…” she whispered softly to herself.

Out of breath, she finally reached the top floor.

Her mark was blazing now as she threw open the rooftop door without hesitation.

The moment she stepped outside, icy wind lashed against her.

Her shirt fluttered wildly, slipping loose from the waistband of her red gym shorts as she scanned the rooftop.

Then she saw him.

Surrounded by razor-sharp blades of ice that held him tightly in place.

His head was bowed, his eyes closed.

Blood dripped into the snow, running down the spike that had pierced his flank.

“Hale!”

As she rushed toward him, his eyes opened slowly, but the instant he saw her, panic flared across his face.

“Koori, watch out! It’s a trap!”

The words had barely left his mouth when the same ice blades that had impaled himself shot up beneath her feet.

But this time, they struck nothing.

Before the spikes could skewer her, she launched herself sideways with a precise lavaburst beneath her feet.

Hale could hardly believe it.

So fast…

Her reflexes have improved so much, since our first arena match.

Already, more spears erupted from the ground.

Koori leapt from spot to spot, evading every attack, until she suddenly stopped.

Once again, ice surged up beneath her.

But the instant it touched her skin, it shattered.

The galaxies in Koori’s eyes flared with fury as the basalt coating covering her body repelled the final strike.

For a moment, there was nothing but the howl of the wind.

A strained sigh drifted down from the rooftop stairwell structure, where Tadamori Purimura stood, frowning at Koori with a cigarette between her lips.

“Couldn’t you have just stayed still, nya?? That would’ve saved us a lot of time and effort…”

Koori glanced at Hale, then back at Purimura.

“Was this you? Did you do this to him!?”

Purimura raised her paws theatrically.

“Hey, he attacked me first! I merely showed him his… limits, didn’t I, darling-nya?”

Hale didn’t react.

He focused on his mark, on the power flowing through it, and yet it felt utterly useless.

Damn it…

The ice binding me… it doesn’t listen to me.

I can feel it… but I can’t move it.

Is Tadamori controlling it?

He strained to turn his head toward Koori as much as his frozen prison allowed.

Then he shouted, his voice hoarse and desperate:

“Koori… run! She’s… she’s after YOU!”

Purimura turned to Koori with a grin, her claws sliding free.

“That won’t help you. But go ahead and try,” she purred. “There’s nothing better than prey that runs…”

But Koori made no move to flee.

The moment Purimura finished speaking, the first lava projectile was already hurtling toward her. She leapt aside from the stairwell structure, narrowly avoiding it.

More attacks followed, fireball after fireball, forcing the Neko into the defensive for the first time.

With a surge of ice, Purimura barely managed to transform the next wave of molten rock into a dense chunk of basalt, which slammed into the wall mere centimeters from her, sending a tremor through the rooftop.

“Nyani!? Keep this up and the whole school will collapse! Along with your cute little human friends…”

“C-collapse…?”

The words threw Koori off for just a moment, exactly as her opponent had hoped.

Purimura’s eyes flashed, and she seized the opening.

Ice blades erupted from the ground again.

But this time, one by one.

Precise.

Koori retreated, blocking the attacks with another basalt layer forming over her arms.

But this time, it began to crumble.

The ice was sharper than before.

Heavier.

Hale noticed how she was slowly being pushed back.

Koori… damn it… is there really nothing I can do!?

Purimura pressed the advantage.

The ice blades grew more accurate.

Every movement calculated, every strike designed to drive Koori farther back.

The wind howled.

“You are strong,” Purimura observed calmly as she advanced. “But not strong enough, nya.”

Koori’s chest rose and fell rapidly as her back hit the low edge of the rooftop.

Her basalt armor was cracked now, fine glowing lines running through the dark stone along her arms.

Purimura prepared her final strike.

Then Koori stomped down hard.

The ground beneath Purimura’s hind paws trembled.

A focused seismic burst split the concrete apart, ice shattering like shrapnel.

Purimura leapt several meters into the air, smiling.

“Too predicta—”

Her bushy ears twitched and mid-jump, she snapped her head downward.

The ground beneath her was still moving.

Cracks in the concrete suddenly glowed, filling with something black and red.

With a thunderous roar, a fountain of lava erupted upward, blazing and brilliant.

“Tch!”

Purimura curled in on herself instinctively.

Thick ice grew instantly around her body, sealing into a compact sphere just in time before the lava engulfed it.

Steam exploded outward, spreading across the rooftop as the air vibrated violently.

For a single heartbeat, there was nothing but dense mist and the hiss of superheated vapor.

Koori didn’t hesitate.

She spun around and ran toward Hale, guided only by the glow of their marks, the fog was too thick to see anything else.

“Hale!”

She pressed her hands against the ice imprisoning him, heat surging from her palms.

The prison cracked, melted, and collapsed.

With a sizzling hiss, the ice spike in his right flank dissolved as well.

“Nngh!”

Hale screamed as pain tore through him.

His body slumped forward, and without thinking, Koori caught him.

Blood immediately ran over her fingers, dark and frighteningly fast.

“Hale!” Her voice trembled. “Can you hear me?”

He gasped for air, sweat pouring down his face, teeth clenched.

“Y-yeah…” he wheezed. “It just… hurts like hell…”

Blood seeped through the torn fabric of his sleeve and dripped into the snow.

“I… I’m getting dizzy…” he muttered.

Koori’s eyes widened.

“I- I can help you,” she said urgently, almost pleading. “Don’t move!”

She pressed one hand gently against his side, the other directly over the gaping wound.

Her fingers trembled for a moment, then she focused.

Warmth spread.

No flames.

No eruption.

Just controlled heat.

The blood hissed softly as the wound cauterized.

“AGHHHHHH!!”

Hale’s scream echoed through the winter air.

He gasped as the pain abruptly subsided, leaving behind only a dull, throbbing ache.

“…You…” He swallowed. “You stopped the bleeding…”

Koori looked at him, brow furrowed, tears shining in her eyes.

“Yes,” she said quietly. “Because I… because I…”

Her voice broke.

Hale lifted his head with effort and forced a crooked smile.

Then a deep rumble sounded.

Behind them, a black basalt sphere, one that had crashed onto the rooftop moments earlier, crumbled apart.

Stone shattered, steam poured out, and finally Purimura emerged from the mist, coughing once before casually brushing off her shoulder as if nothing had happened.

Koori straightened beside Hale.

Both their marks glowed brightly through the fog, blue and red.

Purimura’s eyes gleamed as she noticed.

“Nyah… I see…”

She took a step forward.

Then voices echoed from the stairwell.

Footsteps.

More than one person.

Purimura paused, glancing toward the door.

An annoyed sigh escaped her.

“Tch… you really had to draw that much attention…” she muttered, sliding her glasses back onto her nose.

Her gaze passed over Koori, then Hale.

“We’ll see each other again,” she said calmly.

The next instant, she vanished into the mist.

The wind howled across the rooftop.

Koori held Hale tightly as the steam slowly cleared.

Then the stairwell door burst open, and a group of firefighter Nekos rushed onto the roof.