Burst (Part 2)

From the door that leads back into the arcade, the mysterious blond man silently watches the fight's twists and turns.

Even through the thick fog and being a couple of meters away, he is seemingly able to take in the details without much trouble.

Some sort of ability?

A well-trained eye?

Who knows?

“How amusing.” He pulls out a cigarette-shaped lollipop out of his lab coat's pocket. “Never thought I’d star Mahōgan from up close like this.” Popping the lolli into his mouth, the man smirks. “Let’s see how long this will take.”

***

Onimaru goes for a punch out of his dash, but once again the brunet boy dodges.

However, this time the shorter boy doesn’t go for a throw, instead he plants his feet in the ground and shouts. “Leg: Burst!” The bluish aura that surrounds his body moves down and envelopes the boy’s lower, right member. “Haaaah!” He lifts from the floor and brings his knee towards the taller teen’s jaw.

Before, his moves were clearly not working against the delinquent king, who would just shrug them off like nothing, but this time thanks to the boost from his Mahōgan, Hiroto was able to stagger his opponent and send him stumbling back in pain.

The brunet sees this as an opportunity and moves in like a hawk diving towards its prey. “Arm: Burst!” Once again, the energy that was on his leg goes up and surrounds his left arm. “Hyaaah!” Without giving his opponent a chance to recover, he punches Onimaru right in the gut.

“Haaagh!” Clutching his stomach, the seemingly unstoppable delinquent gasps for air.

But there was still more to come. Without wasting any time, the shorter teen follows up his assault with two swift jabs to the taller boy’s face, then delivers a roundhouse kick to his neck, sending the black-haired teenager spinning into the concrete floor.

Hiroto moved in closer in order to continue his onslaught, but Onimaru grabbed him by the feet and pulled the boy down, so now they are both on the ground.

“Gah!” The brunet groans as his back hits the concrete. “Huh!?” The taller teen rolls up and sits over his opponent's stomach, then proceeds to throw repeated blows to the other boy’s unprotected head.

“You’re gonna need way more than that to defeat me!” Shouts the black-haired delinquent, although his words may seem like those of an annoyed person, his tone of voice was full of giddy excitement and a large grin had spread across his face. “This is so fun!”

The shorter boy takes three strikes, then shouts. “Arms: Divide Burst!”

Once again, the light surrounding his leg moves up his body and envelopes both of his arms this time, but their glow was very noticeably weaker.

Using the boosted strength in his upper members, Hiroto does a double palm strike to the other boy’s chest, making Onimaru fly off his stomach and into the air. “Legs: Divide Burst!” The star-eyed boy then plants his hands on the ground and pulls himself up into a handstand and by doing that, hitting the black-haired delinquent in the stomach with his feet. “Hyah!” He proceeds to spin and tosses his opponent to the side, using the momentum of the twist to jump and reposition himself back standing up.

The taller teen rolls to the side, then jumps back to his feet too. “This feeling!” While still clearly healing from the damage he took in that last combo, the smile he wore before never leaving the boy’s face. “This is exactly what I was looking for!” He bends both of his arms while hunching his body. “Ogre Impact: Double Jet!” His upper limps morph into their jet form before he launches himself towards Hiroto at an even higher velocity than before.

Even with his seemingly improved physical prowess, the brunet is simply not fast enough to dodge Onimaru’s attack, but he is able to shout at the last second. “Arms: Divide Burst!” Just as he finished, his body is violently pushed towards the nearest brick wall by his opponent’s incredible attack.

Once again both boys were covered by the dust of the wall exploding, but this time once it went down, the brunet was not on the floor. Instead, he was holding both of the delinquent’s hands in his own, having successfully defended against the attack and only taking damage from his back, hitting the wall.

“Haaah!” Hiroto pushed both of his opponent’s arms away, leaving him completely open to a strike. “Time to end this!” Using a headbutt to stagger the taller teen, the shorter boy then moves closer, planting his feet into the ground and winding up a punch with his left arm. “Arm: Full Burst!” The glow surrounding both of his upper limps move into just his left, and it glows even brighter than before. “Hyyyyyaaaaaaahhhhh!”

With extremely powerful uppercut right into Onimaru’s jaw, the taller boy rolls his eyes to the back of his head before being sent flying straight into the air.

Once his unconscious body hits the floor, the concrete beneath him cracks thanks to the force of the impact. But even at this unconscious state, he still had a smile on his face.

A gentle breeze flies through the abandoned parking lot as a deep silence settles in.

Kanzaki Hiroto has won.

***

The blond man lets the lollipop fall out of his mouth. “That-“ He mutters in shock. “To close a gap that large only by using his Mahōgan… could this boy be some sort of prodigy?“

It wasn’t just his eye powers, the way he moved and reacted throughout the whole fight.

That was the movement and adaptability of a genius.

***

Not being able to contain herself, Umiko jumps to her feet and excitedly shouts. “He won!” She looks at a shocked Kayoko.

“He really did!” The silver-haired teen covers her mouth in shock. “Such power! It was certainly something.”

The change in tides of this battle was almost unbelievable.

Not wanting to waste any more time, the two girls hop off the broken car and start making their way towards the two boys.

“Kanzaki-kun!” The bluenette calls while waving her hands. “Congratu-“ As she moved closer, the brunet turned to face her.

But instead of being met with a smile or any reaction suited for a winner, she just briefly saw the glowing blue eyes of Hiroto, before his body simply began to fall towards the ground.

“Kanzaki-kun!?” She yells while running and extending her hand towards him in hopes of catching the boy.

KANZAKI-KUN!?

Was the last thing he heard, before his world went completely dark.

***

Hiroto slowly opened his eyes.

Only to be met with an endless void of pure darkness.

It took some seconds for him to register his surroundings and with it, a long and deep breath.

He knew what was coming, but that didn’t make it any less difficult to witness.

*Click*

Stage lights turn on, and after moving around in the dark for a moment, they take focus on a scene right in front of the teenager.

Before his eyes there was a young girl with long, brunette hair sitting on the floor. She was shaking, and with tears running down her soft, round cheeks.

Standing just in front of her was a young boy, also with brunet, hair but his being styled in quite the peculiar, star-shaped hairdo.

The boy’s eyes were definitely not the eyes a middle-schooler should have, they were animalistic, filled with a clear wish for violence, and had a hint of boredom in them.

He clenched his fist tightly and began moving closer to the girl. It didn’t take a genius to know why.

Hiroto tried to shout, to run towards the two children, but it was in vain. No matter what he did, they wouldn’t hear, they couldn’t hear.

The boy seemingly tried to lunge at the girl, but suddenly many adult-sized hands came out of the darkness and pushed him to the ground, holding the child like he was some sort of wild, rabid animal.

Next, many more lights turned on, all focusing on the unconscious bodies of many other children, some simply laying on the floor while others were being held by their crying mothers.

A cacophony of sounds exploded into Hiroto’s ears. Shouting, crying, yelling, swearing.

He heard everything, people calling him a monster, mothers crying over the unconscious bodies of their children.

It was too much to bear, but amongst the horrible sounds the teenager was hearing, another voice came in. No one from his past, but a familiar one from his present.

KANZAKI-KUN!

***

With a gasp, the brunet desperately got up. Sweat dripping from his face as his vision was assaulted by the brightness of an unfamiliar room. “W-Where…” It takes a couple of seconds for his eyes to fully adjust to the light. “-am I?”

“Kanzaki-kun!”

Gazing to his side, the boy sees Umiko, Kayoko, and a bandaged Onimaru staring at him.

He stares back at them, before the memories of what happened earlier come back into his head. “I’M SORRY!” He suddenly shouts, scaring the other three. “I-I lost control and- and-“ His eyes fall on the delinquent boy, and he begins to panic. “I-I-“

“Calm down, Kanzaki-san.” Noting that the apology was directed to him, the black-haired delinquent shakes his head. “That’s not how someone who won a battle should react.”

“B-But-“

“You don’t go into a battle and expect not to get hurt.” The delinquent says with a calm smile. “I’m being honest Kanzaki-san, it’s all good.”

At least on the surface, that seems to calm the brunet down. “O-okay then… where am I?”

“The school infirmary. It was the closest place to the arcade that had a medic available.” The blue-haired teen then clears her throat. “Ahem. You collapsed, so we brought you and Onimaru here to get treated.”

“… how late is it?” He asks and Kayoko looks at the clock on the wall.

“Around 5:30.” The silver-haired teen replies.

Crap, yet again he was going to be late.

“I-“ He clutches the bedsheets tightly. “-I really need to go hom-“

“Be a little more patient.” A new voice makes herself known. “I still need to do some checks on you, before you can go home.” Walking into the room, the familiar face of the school’s nurse smiles down at the group.

“Yukimura-sensei…”

“Calm down, neither of you had any serious injuries. Just some scratches here and there.” The adult woman approaches the bed. “By tomorrow you’ll be good as new!”

“I see.” Replies the shorter boy, with a relieved sigh.

“But-“ Yukimura crosses her arms. “-I can understand why Onimaru-kun would come in a state like this, however I wasn’t expecting you to do it too.” She pauses, before smiling mischievously. “Are you finally at that age? When boys start to get rowdy?”

“Uh, I- erm.” Hiroto didn’t know how to respond and instead just looked at his club mates for help.

She was obviously teasing him, but Umiko decided to explain the situation. “It was for the club, Yukimura-sensei.” The bluenette says while scratching the back of her head. “Onimaru said that he’d join if we beat him in a batt- ouch!” She is interrupted by a slap to the back of her head.

“You idiot!” Shouts the adult woman, her tone completely changed from the teasing one she had just a couple seconds ago. “You put him on the front line against Onimaru!?”

“Y-Yeah?” The blue-haired teen says in a confused tone. “Why?”

“…” Looking around, Yukimura notices the many confused expressions of everyone that wasn’t Hiroto. “You really don’t know?” She asks and they all shake their heads. “Kanzaki-kun, you didn’t tell them?”

“…”

“What’s going on?” Kayoko glances towards the brunet, before looking back at the nurse.

“Well, Kanzaki-kun, he-“ She starts to explain, but is suddenly interrupted by a new voice.

“It’s because of his star-eyes.”

Everyone looks towards the direction where the voice came from. To their surprise it wasn’t front the door but instead from the window where an unfamiliar blond man was staring at them.

“W-Who are you?”

The blond smirks. “My name is-“ He pulls what looked like a cigarette out of his mouth and pointed at teenagers. “Shiroishi George and from today onwards… your club advisor.”