BUTHO

"Let's fight without distractions, Mi."

Mai was out of combat. Once the numerical disadvantage was overcome, the young billionaire drew his plasma sword. Ano responded in kind.

*ZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*

*ZZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRRRRRRRRZZZ*

"Wow, I see we have the same gadgets, Mi. Although the blue color of my sword is much more elegant than your vulgar purple sword."

"What does that matter now? This sword I forged together with my new friend will be the one to make you kneel before me!!!"

"Very well, Mi!!! Come and show me what you are capable of!!!"

Both inventors ran towards each other with their swords arrayed in attack position. Blue and purple plasma beams collided and illuminated the darkened office like a supernova explosion.

*XXzxzXZXZXXZXZxzZXZXZXZXZXXzxzxzXZXzxXZxzxZXzxXZXz*

"It's not too late to surrender, Mi!!! Join me and let's conquer the world together!!!"

"NEVER!!!"

"With our combined ingenuity and youth, we can defeat the elders who control the world from the shadows!!!"

"SHUT UP!!!!"

"You are very naive, Mi!!! People need and want to be controlled!!!! Free will is just a myth to fool the ants.”

As their plasma swords clashed and emitted multiple beams of light, Yu tried to get Ano on his side.

"If you free the world without dominating it, someone else will dominate it in your place, and it will be the same again. The wheel that governs the destiny of humans will continue to turn endlessly! Don't you realize!!!??"

"You are wrong!!! My friend and my new companions have shown me that the world can change!!!! I'll be the one to end your madness, Yu!!!!

"Your friend, you say? The one who was killed?"

After hearing those words, from Ano's back, the dark aura that accompanied him began to intensify again. Hatred began to invade the young boy's mind.

The batteries of both plasma swords were about to come to an end. Whichever battery was depleted first in that class would decide the winner.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

*ZZZZZZZZ…..*

Crap!!! My battery ran out earlier! I have to dodge Yu's sword or else...

"YOU LOST, ANO!!!! FALL!!!"

Yu's plasma sword impacted against young Ano's body.

*ZZZZZZZZZZXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX*

*ZZZZZZZ…*

Eh? I'm still alive? Don't tell me... the plasma shield that Coyote modified has saved my life!

"What are you doing, you fool! You're setting up that shield wrong!!!!

"SHUT UP, COYOTE!!!"

"EEEEEEEEEH? SHUT UP? Respect your elders, you brat!!!"

"SHUT UP!!! You're only a little older than me!!!"

"Yes!!! Hahahahaha. One week!!! How about we go out and celebrate our birthday together?"

"We're too busy to celebrate. When we win, we'll be 10 times or 100 times busier!!!"

"We won't win if you're wearing that poopy plasma shield!!!"

"You filthy rascal…!!!!"

Thanks, Coyote.

The purple aura faded again as Ano remembered the time he spent with his new friends over the past week.

"Ha!!! A stroke of luck. You won't have the same luck twice, Mi."

The two rivals looked at each other with their usual cold, piercing stares. While Yu had his gaze full of pride, superiority, and pity for his rival, Ano's gaze radiated an evil aura, thirsty for revenge and justice.

"Join me, Mi! We have the same ambitions!!! The same dreams!!!"

"My dream is not to dominate the world or enslave people like you do!!!"

"That's right!!! All you want is vengeance on those who have taken your friends away from you!!!! You will never get to accomplish your goals If you let your emotions rule you."

"You'd better shut up, Yu. Otherwise, I won't be able to keep the promise I made to your sister."

"Forget about the people you've lost, Mi!!! It all ends here. What do you say? Join me, or go down just like your friends!!!"

Ano’s eyes became fiercer than ever. Those words of Yu's ended up releasing the invisible demon that dwelled inside the young inventor. All the feelings of friendship and kindness he had accumulated in the last week were engulfed by the hatred and anger he gathered for almost 2 years.

"What do I say?" Asked Ano, as he fixed his murderous gaze on his rival's eyes. "I always hated you. I HATED YOU FROM HELLO!!!"

Ano rushed towards Yu. A frantic exchange of blows at the speed of sound began as soon as they met. Both inventors moved around the office at inhuman speeds, generating shockwaves due to the physical enhancers installed in their suits.

*BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM*

"It's useless, Mi. My suit far outperforms yours!!!! Stop fighting over nonsense."

*BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM*

"Nonsense?!!!!You killed my family!!!" The demonic shadow was getting much more intense.

*BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM*

"You're still going on about it? We had nothing to do with it!!!"

"You lie!!! Confess now!!! You stole my suit and killed my family!!!"

*BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM*

"You're right about that. We stole your suit. Your teacher was impressed to see me reading your notes, remember? Didn't it ever strike you as odd that I could understand your sketches? It's not that I could read them, but that I learned to read them. Four years ago, I received some notebooks with a brilliant idea but indecipherable. That day at the science fair, after 2 years, I found you; the real mastermind of the battlesuit! Although we managed to understand some things, the rest was impossible to understand. That's why 2 years ago we revealed to the media the existence of the suit. We wanted the real inventor of the suit to appear. I never imagined it would be a kid like you."

The pounding did not stop. Both of them kept moving at inhuman speeds and hitting each other with the strength of 1000 men without rest.

"You could say we stole from you, but it was someone else who stole your idea and sent it to us so we could develop it. A poor boy like you could never build this work of art alone!!!"

"You dare to mock my family and my dream, when without my help you would never have completed the suit!!!"

*BAM!!!*

*BOM!!!*

Both inventors separated and stopped their frantic pounding. The air in Yu's office began to calm as they both caught their breath. Then, Yu Asu pulled out a contraption from his suit.

"Mi!!! This is my last steel ball!!! Take the impact with your kinetic shield or it will kill someone in the metropolis!!!"

Indeed, that was the last tool Yu's suit had. Therefore, he put everything he had into that throw. The force of that launch would be capable of splitting the moon in two.

“ooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!”

*SWING*

*BAAAAAAAMMMMMM*

“aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”

The steel ball hit the young boy’s kinetic shield, who put his hands out to stop the throw. Ano, with both of his hands facing the steel ball, screamed as sparks flew from the impact with the kinetic shield. After 10 seconds of continuous impact, at last, he blocked the projectile.

"You always brag about not being a liar. Are you sure that this ball was your last tool?"

"Yes."

The young Ano then began to drop multiple weapons and artifacts he still had hidden in his suit.

"ahahaha...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Mi!!! I can't believe you would put yourself at a disadvantage!!!"

*Grin*

The young boy smiled viciously.

"I don't put myself at a disadvantage. It's just that I promised your sister I wouldn't kill you. And I'll never break a promise again. Besides, I wouldn't want to beat you with an advantage."

Both inventors, after exhausting all their bullets, grenades, and equipment, returned to exchange blows capable of destroying armored tanks like if they were butter. Due to the kinetic shielding of both suits, it would end up being a battle of attrition to see which of the two shields would succumb first.

****

Meanwhile, Gunner had successfully infiltrated Asu's building. Infiltrated was the appropriate phrase, although that was more like an assault.

“Gaaaaahhh!!! What’s wrong with this Gunner?? He’s just rushing through the building destroying everything on his path!!!”

"Would you be so kind as to let me in? I have an appointment I'm late for."

“Keep shooting!!! We need to resist until reinforcements come!!”

As the few security personnel fired at the cyborg, he advanced relentlessly towards them like a battering ram. Bullets ricocheted off his body, made of the hardest metal he was built with for The Division's war.

*SMACK*

“GAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!”

"I'm so sorry. You should call an ambulance. I hope you are not hurt." Said the giant as he advanced down the long corridors.

The support and rescue team was approaching as fast as possible towards the designated extraction location. Meanwhile, the battle between the inventors was about to reach its climax.

****

Back in the office, after the last exchange of building-shaking blows, both kinetic shields reached their limit at the same time.

*CRRRRRRR*

*CRRRRRRR*

"Looks like our kinetic shields... just collapsed at the same time, Mi-kun."

"You're using the kun now too? What's the deal? Do you think fighting makes us friends?"

Both opponents were exhausted from all the tension of all those blows. Taking and delivering such brutal blows was too much of a strain on the body even with the kinetic shield. They threw so many blows that, combined, they could have turned several mountains into sand. If it weren't for the kinetic shields, which absorb the impacts, the building would have collapsed.

"The next one to take a hit will be the loser Mi-kun. I advise you to prepare to lose."

"What kind of useless guy prepares himself to lose??!!!"

Both inventors collided, grabbed each other, and intertwined their hands and squeezed with everything they had. The strength augmenting module to reach its limit first would lose.

“ooooooooooooOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

“aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!”

Sparks and lightning began to shoot out of both suits. They hit everything around them. The furniture began to shatter, the floor began to melt, the huge glass windows of the office began to explode one after the other, and the aquarium exploded, releasing the water along with the exotic fish that lived there.

Suddenly, a huge shockwave was created between the two inventors. They both flew in opposite directions until they collided with the metal walls that stopped their bodies.

*CRRRRR*

*CRRRRR*

Both strength augmentation modules were destroyed at the same time. The suits were stripped of the strength multiplier after that last face-to-face. As they both got up after the blow and began to slowly and limpingly approach each other, they continued their conversation.

"HA! It looks like your strength module couldn't hold a candle to mine, Yu!!!"

"A stroke of luck losers like you have, Mi-kun."

"What else is left for your prototype, Yu? Unlike yours, my suit is the original!!! Your cheap copy cannot win against it!!!!"

"You talk a lot. I thought you said we'd work this out by beating the crap out of each other."

"AND SO IT WILL BE!!!" Ano said, with rage and hatred in his cold, piercing eyes.

As the demonic aura enveloped Ano's bruised and bloodied body, Yu looked at his sister, who had shifted slightly due to the expansive slingshot caused by the last clash between the suits.

*Objective unconscious.*

The young billionaire paused, and making use of his great intellect, decided to drag out the battle to allow time for reinforcements to arrive.

"Help me find my father's murderer, Mi-kun!!!! I will rule the world and create the paradise you seek, but you must help me find him."

"Your father's killer? You said he died of natural causes."

"Isn't it natural to die if you're murdered? Mi-kun. According to the information we have, my father's murderer is a terrorist from the Stay faction who has escaped to his beloved nation. With your suit, it will be a piece of cake to hunt him down."

"My suit? Now do you recognize it?"

"I only said in public that it was my suit. I couldn't have presented such an important project from the hands of a nobody like you!!!"

As Ano advanced towards his rival, he stumbled and almost collapsed. Fortunately, he sank his knee against the hard metal floor as drops of blood fell from his forehead against the ground.

"Mi-kun, I'm going to tell you something that even my sister doesn't know. The biggest secret this nation hides. S.A.M, execute Project Unity."

*Project Unity running.*

Despite having disabled all cybernetic devices with the great slingshot disruptor, some systems began to regain their functions. The Asu Industries AI began to display images of cities that Ano had never seen before. But everything in them was an accurate reflection of the metropolises he knew.

"These are images from beyond the wall." Yu stated.

"Stay..." Murmured the young boy as he showed slight astonishment.

"The enemy." Yu replied. "Don't you notice anything strange about these pictures?"

"They're an exact copy of our metropolises."

"Yes, at first glance, that's what it would look like. But look closely at this data here."

*Starvation deaths, 84%*

"Their death rate has intensified in recent years, and the main cause of it is the lack of food. Despite having a slightly higher death rate than ours, the main cause of their deaths is lack of food, 84% of them die from malnutrition while only 5% die from violent crimes, compared to the 25% of our faction."

"And what with that?"

"They've been spying on us since the division war broke out. Our civilizations are identical. The only difference, other than rejecting cybernetic implants, is that they don't have the technology to keep them from starving to death. They have been watching us all this time from the shadows. However, the lack of food is bringing them to a tipping point. Check this out."

*ZOOM*

"That's... combat mechas."

"That's right. Millions of mechas are ready to invade our territory!!!! With each passing year, the food shortage will become greater. If they continue to starve to death, there will be no one left alive in the next 5 years. The pure human race will become extinct. That's why they are planning to make a massive attack on us!!! They have been preparing a massive assault on us for years, and our suit is the only thing that can stop them!!! A great war is coming, Mi-kun. JOIN ME!!! STOP BEING SO STUBBORN!!!"

"I REFUSE!!!"

Ano ran towards Yu with his arm ready to punch him in the face. As Yu stood still in his position, waiting for his opponent to approach, he proclaimed smilingly.

"How impatient, Mi-kun."

The young Ano took a leap just as he was within range of his opponent. With a charged fist, he threw his arm out to meet Yu's face. However, before he reached to hit him...

*BAM*

...Ano flew back to the wall where he had crashed seconds before.

Yu activated the last resort he had. A single-use wave magnifier capable of producing a massive shockwave. Such was the shock, that everything in range was thrown out. Furniture, glass, metal, and all sorts of items in front of Yu went flying along with Ano.

"So... you... lied... to me… you still... cough... had... cough... a weapon..."

"I haven't lied to you. It's not a weapon. It's a part of the suit."

After gazing at Ano's body from a distance, Yu slowly approached his defeated rival. The battle had definitely taken its toll on his body, and he was struggling to breathe. Limping on one leg, holding his left arm with his mauled right arm for a possible fracture, Yu arrived where Ano was. He was sitting leaning against the wall. The last blow against the wall caused him to temporarily lose consciousness. Yu looked down at Ano from above and proclaimed.

"This is the end of your road, Ano."

The triumphant billionaire inventor turned around, ready to call for help to treat his wounds and to call for someone to stop his sister and Ano.

*Crack, crack*

The sound of glass being stepped on stopped Yu, and put a frightened expression on his face for the first time. As he slowly turned his head to check what it was, a dark aura peeked from behind his shoulder. Ano was barely standing. With a posture that didn't look like a person, but a corpse controlled by a demon. With a voice so grim and gloomy that it could freeze a skeleton's blood, young Ano proclaimed back.

"The only one who decides the end of my path… IS ME!!!"