The true awakening

The Phoenix lowered her head, her bright eyes fixing onto Kai. "Remember, you can't think normally in here—we are in your thoughts, Father. You only have an hour before Alyssa gets married, so make it count!"

Kai looked nervous for a second, but his face turned stern. "Why shouldn't I have a second chance at life, young lady? It's my body! I deserve another chance in my life."

The Phoenix laughed and laid down. "You believe so, Father? It's true I represent rebirth, but as a yōkai—or what you think is a yōkai—I love deals. I can read your mind, not your heart. What will you do? You are running out of time." She threw glowing feathers into the air, creating a magical mirror that showed Alyssa walking down the aisle in her wedding attire with a sad expression, surrounded mostly by the Morningstorm family.

Kai clenched his jaw. The Phoenix chuckled while plucking her feathers.

Kai punched his palm. "Alright, daughter! Here's the deal: Anytime I am unconscious in battle, you get to fully control my body until I wake up. And if I ever die in battle, I have to fight you and beat you in combat!"

The Phoenix thought to herself, Mhm, that's a good deal, Father. But on my end, nobody is my friend, so you better awaken quickly. If you can't beat me in battle, I kill you, and every time you die, I get stronger. She lifted her wing out to Kai. "Do we have a deal, my dearest Father?"

Kai looked into the mirror at Alyssa's sad face, then smirked. "Deal."

He grabbed her wing. A massive vortex of fire surrounded them, and a Phoenix tattoo burned onto Kai's right shoulder blade, extending all the way down his hand, showing the tail resting on his palm. Kai put on Kitsunebi's dark sunglasses.

"Cause a show, my Father," the Phoenix said.

Kai pushed up his glasses. "It's showtime."

Kai's mindscape faded and he fell back into reality. Natalie was sitting next to Kai's body, sighing, when she felt his body heating up. The sunglasses in his hands disappeared. The doctors backed up, and Natalie backed up smiling. "Kai! You're back!"

The doctors looked at each other in shock. "That's impossible... he's been reborn!"

Kai smiled wide and jumped up. "Good to be reborn!" He looked down, realizing he needed clothes. "Uhh..."

Natalie smiled and threw him a set of clothes. Kai put them on fast and smirked. "Thanks, Nat! But where is Alyssa?"

Natalie frowned. "She's at the altar. But Kai, are you sure you can fight? My scanner is telling me you've gotten weaker—a lot weaker. But your power is... rapidly evolving as we speak?"

Kai gave her a thumbs-up. "Keep up, Natalie!" He pushed up his glasses and teleported a short distance, running fast. Natalie smiled and followed.

At the altar, Roy stood joined with Alyssa while Karai frowned. The priest began to recite the vows. They both gave their "I do's." The priest asked, "Does anyone speak up, or forever hold your peace?"

Suddenly, outside the doors, guards started screaming, "Get back!"

Kai spin-kicked the door wide open. "I object to this damn wedding!"

The crowd gasped. Guards walked up to Kai, but Kai just backhanded them, walking straight toward the throne. "King Hanzo! I challenge you, damn it!"

King Hanzo stood up. "A challenge to me?! How dare you!"

Kai smirked. "What's wrong, scared?"

Hanzo stiffened, then shook his head no. He glanced at Roy, who was pissed off. "Well then! The challenge for my daughter's freedom starts now!"

Roy shouted, disappearing into a blur of light. He tackled Kai as Alyssa and Karai screamed his name. Scarlett gave Cooper to Karai, summoned blood wings, and followed after them.

Roy grabbed Kai's neck, launching him outside the city limits. "You have ruined everything, you little fire punk! I will kill you! I can tell you got weaker—let's see how fast you can really go!" He laughed, slamming Kai against the ground and dragging him.

Kai used flame ribbons to grab a nearby rock, striking Roy with it. Kai uppercutted him, spun, got on top of him, and double-kicked him to the ground. Roy's eyes glowed as he turned himself into zero mass, letting attacks pass through him, and spin-kicked Kai away. Kai tried to use Flame Overdrive, but it didn't work—that ability was gone.

Roy took that chance, grabbed Kai's leg, threw him through multiple trees, and leaped into the air, punching repeatedly to send concentrated air pressure strikes down at him.

Kai took the hits, coughing as he hit the ground. He forced himself up, running. Come on, daughter, what are my new powers? he thought.

The Phoenix's voice echoed: You are the flames! You don't need my help. Your flames are shapeless. You are not a Kazan anymore—the dragon is gone. You are you.

Kai smiled, jumping off the trees to summon his sword. The dragon logo disappeared, replaced by the Phoenix crest. Kai shouted, "Burn all the way!"

He unsheathed the blade, cutting the density of the air to send heatwave slashes at Roy. Roy dodged, but Kai rushed in with a knee to his jaw, causing Roy to look up. Roy tried to go for a spin kick, but Kai summoned gauntlets wrapped in ignited feathers, making hardened gauntlets of flame.

"My flames don't have a shape, so I can reshape them!" Kai said.

Roy got mad, switching to zero mass, but Kai smirkingly kicked him with flames on his feet, crossing his arms and kicking him repeatedly. "Ah ah ah! Not working this time, fool!"

Roy went for a punch, but Kai jumped over it and delivered a spin kick that sent Roy flying into the forest, crashing through trees. Roy snapped, "Where the hell is he getting all this power from?! I was just faster than this fool!"

Instead of his old chains, Kai summoned flaming ribbons, pulling Roy in close to kick him in the gut. Roy summoned hundreds of light clones to send light beams at him, but Kai started dodging and blocking them, smirking. Roy, completely pissed off, ordered all the clones to launch beam attacks at once.

Kai teleported a short distance away. "I love my daughter!"

His tattoo glowed, and Kai summoned feathers, throwing them onto the clones. He grabbed his sword, slashing at all the clones at rapid speeds, teleporting right to each of them. He sheathed his blade as the feathers ignited, blowing all the clones up.

Roy got spiked to the ground. Kai landed, causing a small shockwave. Roy launched at him again. "Die, you fool!"

Kai snapped his fingers. The feather stuck on Roy exploded. Kai got back up, jumping in place to make a small crater before speed-blitzing into the sky, chasing Roy down.

Roy went punch-for-punch with Kai. Kai flipped off of him and roared, creating a heat barrier that forced Roy to back up. Then, taking a cue from his mother's fighting style, Kai stepped on top of Roy, crushing him down with raw chi to make him hit the ground hard.

"You are an annoying brat! Stay down and die!" Roy screamed, shooting a beam of light.

Kai dodged, throwing feathers and giving them some of his chi to make clones to dodge the blast. Kai mixed chi with flames on two of his fingers. A Kai clone grabbed the real Kai, throwing him directly at Roy. Combining chi with a soft martial dance, Kai speed-stepped behind him. Roy tried to attack, but Kai danced around him, turned his foot, and snapped his fingers, causing Roy to get hit by a barrage of multi-angle punches until he coughed blood.

Roy roared, "Enough! Let me show you the true power of the Light Dragon!"

Instead of transforming, his body naturally evolved, absorbing his new power into his base form. Roy shook the trees around them as his light dragon tattoo grew bigger. He formed a sphere of light in his hand, pushed it into his palm, and created a light construct of a sword as heavy winds picked up.

Kai smirked, unsheathing his blade to clash with Roy. Roy went for an overhead slash; Kai spun out of the way to block it. Roy tried to step on Kai's foot, but Kai kicked his leg out. Kai went for a stab; Roy kicked the blade up and knocked it out of his hand.

Kai grabbed a flaming feather, turning it into a dagger. Kai kicked Roy in the chest to push him back, then threw the dagger into the air and back-heel kicked it toward him. Roy deflected it, but Kai went for a punch. Roy flashed a blinding light, causing Kai to lose his balance. Roy kicked Kai in the gut, making him spit blood, then summoned a light lasso around his leg, slamming him against the ground, spinning him in the air, and throwing him high.

Roy teleported into the sky, gathering matter and energy around him to slam into Kai repeatedly.

Kai caught an air fist to disrupt the assault. "Nice try, Roy! All of this for some girl? I will never let you control her!"

"I will erase you from this earth!" Roy shouted, summoning millions of light swords for his ultimate attack: Raining Judgment.

With no fear, Kai created a platform out of chi, jumping high and slashing through the light. "My will won't waver! She isn't just a girl—she's a special one!"

Kai's heart beat faster, pumping brilliant flames throughout his body. His hair began to move like living fire. He smiled wide, his pupils turning solid gold.

Roy watched in disbelief as a light dragon formed behind him. "Where do you draw all this power from?!" In Roy's mind he thought to himself, "Kai far stronger than before, reaching levels I can't comprehend last time we fought". 

"From my friends!" Kai shouted.

His blade glowed red and black, moving at immense speed, jumping from one falling light sword to another. Yin and Flame Compound: Darkness Flare!

In a blur of motion, all of Roy's judgment swords shattered into dust. Kai uppercutted Roy higher into the sky, then punched him back down to earth. Roy skidded through the dirt, panting heavily.

Roy looked up at Kai, laughing through the pain. "Round two, fool!" A beam of light struck Roy, changing his clothes' color as he transformed into pure light and rushed forward.

Kai narrowed his eyes, blocking the hit as shockwaves pushed past them. They went punch-for-punch, Kai creating his Phoenix gauntlets to block Roy's light strikes. Roy kicked him away, then created a light disk to bounce off, clashing with Kai again.

Kai grunted, looking Roy dead in the eye. "You are strong, but you are nothing compared to Fujidai. If you're not stronger than me, then you sure as hell aren't stronger than her. A true man knows when he can't win a fight. I can't beat either of them yet, but I will break my limits!"

Roy looked at him, powered down, landed on the ground, and sighed. "I see why she likes you."

Roy grabbed Kai, and they both teleported back to the altar. Roy walked right past King Hanzo. "The wedding is over. Let's get back to our duty, Mei."

Hanzo blinked. "What about..."

Kai stood behind him with his arms crossed, smirking. "Hey Hanzo, looks like Alyssa has her freedom, meaning she doesn't gotta marry anyone, huh, old man?"

Hanzo sighed and chuckled softly. "Fine, fine! You, my wonderful daughter, have the free will to do as you please."

Alyssa smiled brightly, hugged Kai, and laughed. "Thank you, Kai!"

Scarlett landed nearby. "Kai, a note came for you."

Kai turned around, grabbed it, and read the contents:

"You better bring my egg sooner or later, or I will make you end up like your poor best friend. Hurry soon, boy—Mama and Papa are so worried about you, boy.

Signed, Arcane Dragon"

Kai crushed the paper in his fist and turned to Alyssa. "Tomorrow, Alyssa, we are going to gather everyone and travel to get the egg. But I need new paper—my original scroll was destroyed."

Karai looked over. "I think Natalie could help you make another one, but we might need to stay here for a bit."

Kai looked at the crumpled note, took a breath, smiled, and nodded. "Yeah, that's good. I don't need sleep, so I'm gonna try and get some things done."

Alyssa smiled. "Okay, Kai. Hey Scarlett, can you help me get out of this dress?" She walked away, with Scarlett and Cooper following behind her.

Karai walked alongside Kai, smiling. "So, how did you live?"

Kai chuckled, looking up at the sky. "Thinking about my friends."

Karai gave a cheeky smile. "Right... okay! Well, I'm glad you aren't dead, dork. But um... you've been sleeping for months."

Kai glanced over, not surprised. "Mhm, really? Must've been a good coma."

Karai rubbed his arm. "Mhm. Someone got strong somehow... how did that happen, Mr. Kazan?"

Kai looked around nervously, rubbing his neck. "Uhh..."

Up in the window, Alyssa watched them walk away, sighing.

Scarlett helped her unlace the dress. "You should tell him. It's eating you up, isn't it?"

Alyssa sighed softly. "I will wait..."

Scarlett shook her head. "You are so bad."

Meanwhile, far away in the Underworld, Yui looked outside at the night sky. "My baby boy is alive... good, good," she chuckled softly. "He's starting to learn the heritage of my people. Interesting."

Shinzo called out her name from the main hall. "Yui Kazan, come on! Dinner time!"

Yui stood up at 6'3", her green snake tattoo glowing as she smiled and walked over to Shinzo.

TO BE CONTINUED...