The Weight of Guilt.

Under the shelter of a half-collapsed building, Natasha and Kyosuke caught their breath. The brief respite after the battle with Natsuki had restored some of their strength, but their bodies were still battered and their Essence reserves were dangerously low.

Natasha stood up, brushing the dust from her tattered uniform. Her mind, now clear after her sister's death, returned to her mission. "We have to get back to the base," she said firmly, sheathing her katana. "If Natsuki was here, the Regent must be close. Kaori needs us to finish this."

Kyosuke adjusted his broken glasses and shook his head, his expression grim. "We can't go back yet, Natasha. Ken isn't at the base." Natasha froze. "What?"

"He came looking for you," Kyosuke explained, looking out at the rain. "Kaori ordered him to follow you. She said it was too dangerous for you to be alone. He went ahead of me while I covered the medics' retreat."

The words hit Natasha harder than any physical blow. Ken, the rookie who always smiled, the boy she'd jokingly called her student, had come into this hell because of her. Because of her recklessness. Because of her stupid need to chase family ghosts. She clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. A dark thought crossed her mind: Was Natsuki right? Are she and I really so different? We both drag death to those who matter to us.

Natasha approached Kyosuke. Her usual coldness had dissolved into a vulnerability that slightly unnerved the commander. "Kyosuke... please," her voice trembled. "Help me find him. I can't... I can't lose anyone else today."

Kyosuke looked at her, surprised, then sighed and nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to ask, Naty-chan. Ken's my friend too. Let's go get him."

Their conversation was interrupted by a series of earth-shaking roars a few blocks away. The sound of collapsing buildings and the unmistakable roar of a giant beast. They exchanged a glance. No words were needed. They ran toward the source of the chaos.

When they reached the main street, the scene froze their blood. The Regent, a mountain of black armor, loomed over the small figure of Kazuha, who was paralyzed on the ground. The giant Odachi descended to split the boy in two.

"You bastard!"

Without thinking, Kyosuke unwound one of his chains and hurled it with all his might. The silver metal crossed the air, forming a steel tip. The impact on the Regent's helmet was brutal, making the giant's head snap violently to the side. The monster roared in pain and surprise, stumbling back two steps.

Seizing the fraction of a second, Natasha became a purple blur. She ran, slid across the wet ground, and grabbed Kazuha by the waist, pulling him out of danger just before the Regent regained his balance.

The monster turned toward them. His black aura pulsed with pure fury. They had snatched his prey right at the climax.

Natasha, without taking her eyes off the beast, set Kazuha down on the ground behind her. "Kazuha," she asked in an icy voice, "where's Ken?"

The boy didn't answer immediately. His eyes were full of tears, staring fixedly at a point beyond the Regent, amidst the smoldering rubble. Kazuha slowly shook his head, unable to articulate a word.

Natasha followed his gaze. "I see," was all she said. Her voice held no emotion; it was the sound of something breaking inside.

But Kyosuke was not so calm. Understanding what Kazuha's silence meant, a volcanic fury seized him. "YOU MONSTER!" he roared, and his chains erupted in a blinding silver glow. "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Kyosuke charged alone against the giant. Natasha stayed for a second, looking at the gray sky as if asking forgiveness from gods who didn't listen. Then, with a sigh that expelled all her pain, she released Kazuha and joined the charge.

The final battle had begun. Kyosuke maintained a mid-range distance, lashing out with his chains like hypersonic whips, seeking to entangle the Regent's limbs, destabilize him, blind him. Natasha was the blade. She darted in and out of the monster's guard with incredible speed, striking at armor joints, tendons, any weak point she could find.

Yet, as she fought, Natasha noticed something. The Regent's armor was not pristine. It had deep dents, fresh scratches... Ken... did you... did you do this? In her mind, she pictured Ken smiling, defiant to the end. That image didn't weaken her. It fueled her. Her Kijin katana began to emanate an intense purple aura, vibrating with a thirst for vengeance.

The Regent, sensing the girl's surge in power, decided he'd had enough close combat. With a brutal leap backward, he put fifty meters between himself and the duo. "Watch out!" Kyosuke warned.

The Regent raised his Odachi toward the sky. From the tip of the black blade, darkness began to condense. Two spheres of pure black energy, each the size of a human, materialized, floating. The air around them distorted. A single touch from that and we're dead, both S-Class warriors thought in unison.

With a motion of his sword, the Regent launched the spheres. They didn't fly straight; they moved with a malicious intelligence, pursuing their targets. "Split up!" Natasha shouted.

They ran in opposite directions. The spheres divided. Natasha ran through the streets, jumping over cars and rubble, but the sphere followed without losing speed. Kyosuke tried to lose his by entering a building, but the sphere passed through the walls as if they were smoke. Natasha climbed to the top of a steel construction frame, scaling it like a spider, but the black sphere ascended after her, relentless.

It was useless. They couldn't outrun them. Then, without needing to speak, they both had the same idea. From their distant positions, they both turned and ran at full speed toward each other, drawing their respective spheres on a collision course.

Just before meeting in the center of the avenue, Kyosuke and Natasha slid across the ground. The two spheres of darkness collided violently above their heads. KRA-KOOM!

The explosion wasn't of fire, but of gravity and void. A shockwave of dark energy ravaged the street, shattering windows three blocks away and throwing the two warriors several meters apart. They got up coughing, their uniforms burned, their breath ragged. That trick had saved them, but it had consumed the last few reserves of energy they had left after the fight with Natsuki.

The Regent, seeing their exhaustion, gave them no rest. He charged again with terrifying speed. Natasha raised her katana to defend herself, but her eyes strayed for a second. Through the rain and the explosion's smoke, she saw the bodies clearly. Ken was face down, motionless. Beside him, Tanimoto lay in a pool of blood. Her suspicions were confirmed. They were dead.

That second of weakness, that instant of human pain, was all the Regent needed. The monster appeared in front of Natasha. His giant sword descended in a horizontal arc meant to cleave her in half at the waist. Natasha had no time to react. She closed her eyes.

Natasha didn't feel the cut. She opened her eyes and saw a familiar back in front of her. Kyosuke had thrown himself between them. The Regent's blade had struck Kyosuke's chest. His chains, desperately wrapped around his torso to cushion the blow, shattered into pieces. The impact sent the commander flying like a stone thrown by a giant. His body crossed the street and slammed against a concrete wall, where he lay motionless, bleeding.

Natasha was alone. She had lost Ken. Now she had lost Kyosuke.

Guilt crushed her. I'm weak. Everyone dies protecting me.

An intense, chaotic, and violent aura exploded around Natasha. It wasn't controlled like before; it was a storm of self-hatred. "AAAAAAH!"

With her body wreathed in purple energy, she charged alone at the Regent. It was a brutal exchange. Natasha no longer dodged; she parried the giant's blows with her own strength, trading slashes, seeking to kill or die. They seemed evenly matched for a few seconds.

But the human body has limits. Using the full Kijin Manifestation twice in the same day, combined with accumulated damage, was too much. In the middle of an attack, Natasha's legs failed. Her aura flickered and died. She fell to her knees before the Regent, spitting blood, the air gone from her lungs. Her vision darkened. The last S-Class of Kanto had fallen. The base was lost. It was all over.

The Regent raised his Odachi for the killing blow. Natasha didn't even try to move. The blade came down whistling.

Something struck the Regent's face with the force of a meteor. It wasn't a slash. It was a blunt impact that lifted the three-meter giant off the ground and sent him flying ten meters backward, crashing him into an overturned bus.

Dazed, Natasha looked up through the rain. Someone was standing in front of her, blocking the path of death.