Haruto stood still as the gray area continued to envelop his surroundings. A vast emptiness of a never-ending abyss of space that dissipated the audience seemed to eat away most of the world and left nothing but a barren gray land. But yet a calm collective wind still flew through his rubbery garments, creating a whistling sound as it passed through threw him and faded away. This was where he knew, he was in the midst of focus. He tried his best to stay calm as he held his weapon tightly. But fear managed to crawl all the way to his shaking hands. As he inhaled a large shallow breath, he managed to calm himself down for the meantime as he began to think of a plan to survive.

"Okay Haruto, use your brain. Think!" He thought, trying his hardest to repress his fear.

The stage had transcended from something like a loud football game to two people dancing on the stage of a dark empty theatre. Haruto couldn't see anyone from the chairs nor could he hear them clearly. But none of it bothered him at all, only adding to the effect of a creepy atmosphere, he only tried to acknowledge one thing and that was the mysterious adversary who was staring at him dagger-eyed as he ran towards the still swordsman. Time was slow here, what sounded like the pitter-patter of footsteps a few seconds ago turned to slow uncomfortable crunching on pebble and dirt.

Haruto studied his opponent well, examining the many features his enemy had, from the lean muscular build of his interior to the little details of his gear, movement, and weapon. Haruto saw his crimson hair and incarnadine eyes, flaunting in the wind like fire dancing across a fog. With one hand on his sheath and the other gripping on his wooden katana, the enemy was ready to slash at him the moment he got close. He looked strong, he gave him that, but he knew that in terms of physical combat, he had an advantage.

It is common knowledge for swordsmen to make sure that the materials of their blade are of utmost durability and quality. Its properties must be built from an experienced smith, the same can also be said for wooden swords. To create a sword is to create a weapon that can last a full war. 

"Judging from the appearance of the wood, it's probably cheap. I gotta make sure I apply enough force to break it!" He thought, grasping his sword even tighter. 

But thoughts of doubt outweighed the small hope the he clinged to, how could he say that he might even be able to continue defending himself if his enemy had something similar to what he saw at the beginning of this tournament? The memory of that fight terrified him, talking to him like a whisper of regret. But even so, Haruto still did his best to make sure that it didn't bother him, he convinced himself that what mattered most was how he should focus, prepare for the worst, then strike with all his might. 

The grey are slowly disappeared and everything went back to normal. He could hear the crowds cheers, the wind blowing, and the sounds of footsteps running closer towards him.

The enemy was quick, closing in on their distance and preparing his sword for what looked like a slashing strike. Haruto immediately placed his sword in front of himself to defend from the attack. His opponent jumped, twisting his body, the sword from his hand closed in on Haruto who was ready to deflect the attack. But what happened next was far from what he anticipated, the blade didn't hit Haruto's sword. "Did he miss?" He thought. With hand and sword on the ground, his attacker bended his body again while his opponent was distracted from the fake attack, but before Haruto could realize what he was intending to do, a blow from his left side sent him gasping and twirling back but managed to balance himself. 

"What the—?" Haruto thought. Raising his sword once more. With only a fraction of a second, his opponent went into a stabbing stance and started attacking Haruto, slowly pushing him towards the wall with consistent force. 

"I have to think of something—!" Haruto thought as he continuously deflected the attacks. "His attacks are too fast and unpredictable to read!" 

Haruto's face showed visible frustration that would've concerned his friends but the boy continued to charge blindly at his adversary. Eagerly thrusting his blade at any opening he could find. With his attention focused on the person in front of him, his disregard for the environment made him trip on a small rock and caused him to attack with a pre-mature linear strike. Haruto was quick, avoiding the attack and flipping his blade to bash his enemy's head with the bottom resulting in the boy being sent crashing into the wall as he tripped face-first. 

Haruto gasped. "I did it!" He thought, walking backwards before pointing his sword once more. 

"Ow... That hurt." The boy said, holding his face as blood trickled down his fractured nose. "You've really done it now!" 

The crowed continued to cheer at the sight of their battle but this time, the true fight was about to begin as they rushed towards each other once more.

A wave of attacks surged through the field, Haruto and his opponent constantly deflecting, attacking, and parrying each other with different stances and strategies. Dirt had covered their sandals. Their battle had progressed for a while, the contact from their blades created loud sounds of wood being bashed into each other filled the stadium. The crowd could see the determination in both of their faces. Neither of them wanted to hold back, using all of their strength to be an opposing force against each other. As the fight progressed, Haruto noticed something, from the loud continuous sounds, he heard something peculiar, a small crack. The wood started to create uneven lines on the weapon, a sign that it was about to break.

"There it is! This is my chance!" Haruto thought.

The chance of victory was finally upon him and he knew what to do. With a good read on his opponent, Haruto swiftly ducked a another thrust and pushed his enemy's blade into the air with a backflip. With feet back on the ground and his position ready for charging, he wasted no time and ran up to his opponent. Within a moments glance, the swordsman jumped high into the air, falling down on his target, twisting his body to perform one final, powerful strike to his blade, the crowd went silent, holding their breath for the moment to come, Haruto, still falling down towards his tripping enemy, readied his blade.

"This is it! The finishing attack!" Haruto said to himself. Tightening his grip.

The climax of the battle is finally here. His body twisted, sword poised to attack. As he landed on to the ground, a loud sound silenced the arena. With him having administered the final blow, the match drew into a conclusion, silencing the crowd with bated breaths. The sound of broken wood echoed through the night with clarion, with the crowd staring at the two fighters down below. As they stared, pieces of wood lay down next to a sitting crimson-haired fighter holding a broken blade, and Haruto, having broken his opponent's sword, had won.

Immediately, the arena was filled with cheers. A constant wave of shouting and clapping caught his ears. He looked up, noticing the destroyed blade in front of him. But before he could say anything, his opponent stood up and congratulated him.

"Congratulations on winning, that was a great fight. But it looks like I'll have to get a new sword though..." The boy said as he threw away the broken sword. 

Haruto looked at him and chuckled. "I'm so sorry about that. It's probably best that you buy something better though." He replied with his chin close to his body.

"Oh it's okay, I guess buying a cheap weapon for a tournament wasn't the best idea after all." The boy said. "Well, since I lost I better get going now. It was nice to meet you. Good luck on the next round!" Running towards the gate, the boy disappeared into the night.

Haruto looked behind him and was amazed by what he saw. The vast cheers of the crowd, the praises for his great fight and victory, they were more then enough to make him smile, happy, something he never felt for a while. It gave him motivation. But that moment of celebration was short-lived as guards came to escort him back to the waiting room. 

"Get ready for the next round." The guard said as he escorted Haruto inside.

As he entered into the dimly lit room, a pair of hands jumped towards him and started hugging him tightly.

"Congrats Haruto! You did great!" Sayozane said in excitement. Holding him tightly and laughing. "I knew you could do it, you had it in you, Haruto!" 

Haruto hugged her back and they walked towards the front bench to sit down. But their moment of celebration was short-lived as he noticed something in the room.

"Hey Sayo. Where's Kenriki?" Haruto asked.

"Eh?" She replied. Looking down on the floor.

"Well... Because he lost to me. He wasn't allowed to stay inside here anymore." Sayoane said. 

"Oh... I thought he would be here, after your match. Then that means that we have to go on without him."

The fact that their friend wasn't around was a bit demotivating. They had planned to do this together but it looks like fate had other plans for them.

"Yeah... Me too." Sayozane said as she frowned on her seat. "So what do we do now, Haruto?"

Haruto let out a loud a sigh and looked at Sayozane in the eyes. "We've gotten this far, we can't let Kenriki down right now. So let's win this Sayozane, for him!" 

"Yeah!" 

As the night progressed, pairs of fighters went outside the room, fought, and came back with only one winner. Surprisingly, most of their defeats were either by disarment, knock-out blows, and other winning attacks. The arena's noise never stopped, only simmering down when a match reached its conclusion. Eventually, the room that was filled with the voices of 25 fighters became quiet, replaced by the monotone sound of the monitor or the metal door that opened when a backstage operator came to say something important, the tournament was finally coming to an end and the winner of the competition was to be unraveled in the final match.

Sayozane looked around her and was surprised. "Haruto, look around." She said. Tapping her friend on the shoulder.

Haruto looked behind his back, only six fighters remained in this tournament, realizing that the tournament was nearly coming to an end, they either had to make or break it. Everyone else in the room sat far away from each other, distancing themselves from their potential opponents, the atmosphere around them became more tense then earlier. But now they had to deal with another problem, among the six fighters in the room, Haruto was the only one who felt uneasy, knowing that the first fighter, Gokuro, was still inside the room. Sleeping and crossing his arms while his headband covering his eyes. The wounds on his body weren't even tendered, perhaps the medical team didn't want to annoy him because of his crude personality. But he knew that his strength was enough to have him come out on top. He looked at his friend and became frightened.

"Sayo, let's just volunteer to fight each other! Haruto said. Prompting her to get up with his elbow.

"What?! Why?" Sayozane asked, surprised at his friend's sudden request.

"I-It's complicated okay! Come on, let's go to the emcee." Haruto said as he grabbed her arm and walked to the door.

But he was stopped in his tracks as Sayozane pulled her arm from his grip. She looked away from him, her teary eyes caught his attention.

"I'm not going to do that Haruto. I won't let you beat me." 

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Haruto replied. Startled with her words.

She didn't respond, only turning her back towards him as she sat again on the white-lit bench. Slowly, he walked towards the bench and sat next to her with an inch of space between them.

"But Sayozane, I'm not gonna defeat you. I—"

"Don't lie!" Sayozane screamed, alarming the other fighters. "I'm not gonna let my best friend protect me this time..." She said. 

"What do you mean...?" He asked.

"You don't want me to fight him. I know you just want to protect me."

"Him?" 

"I know you don't want me to fight Gokuro." 

Haruto jolted. He never mentioned him once nor did he want to talk about it. "How did you know that?" He asked.

"Kenriki told me all about them and I saw what was happening on the monitor." She wiped her tears as she balanced herself to explain even further. "I know you think I'm just a little girl. But I don't wanna be a little girl who's always protected by everyone. I want to get stronger, even if it means having some of my bones broken. Because I made a promise!" Sayozane explained.

"But Sayo, if you face him—"

"I know." She interrupted him. "Just let me do this, if I lose, then at least I tried my best to help you get to the top and that's what matters more to me for now."  She said. Smiling at his friend with a glowing face of sadness.

But their moment of realisation came to a halt when the emcee appeared again on the stage, only this time, the machine wasn't brought. With card and microphone in hand, a surprise was awaiting for the audience. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a while since we've had such a great tournament right? Well to make this even better, we've prepared a special treat for you all. It's time for a Battle Royale!" 

A battle royale—four out of the six fighters would battle against each other the arena until only one fighter remained. Each of the four names was to be handpicked from a small glass bowl filled with parchments of paper and each contestant would pick their place among the four pedestals.

Haruto held on this chair, "A four-man battle royale? That's insane." he thought.

The emcee took out three pieces of paper, calling the names written on them aloud, three random fighters that included Gokuro. Haruto and Sayozane knew that only one of them would be chosen for the final spot in this event. Grabbing the last piece of paper for the event, the emcee slowly opened it, the sound of his voice was almost sinister as the last fighter of the event was announced.

"Sayozane Kanasumi"

The door opened with a bang, guards came in to escort everyone who was called, Haruto hesitated to let her go but she insisted. This was what she wanted and all Haruto could do was watch. With all of the chosen contestants out of the room, the door behind them closed and the room went silent again. The sound of the monitor and the crowd disappeared, leaving only the noise of the creaking chair he was sitting on. Haruto glanced at the other fighter in the room, sitting across him next to the door. He was asleep, which definitely weirded him out. 

Looking back at the monitor, Haruto saw all four of them far away from each other at the edge of the circle, each fighter stood on a small erected pedestal and at the center of the field was a small statue with a timer on top. One minute, one minute was all that's left before they begin, Haruto could see Sayozane, she was scared, her face sweating for what was about to happen. She was nearly in tears, he wanted to go out to help her but he couldn't, and yet, she clenched her fist and wiped the tears from her eyes, this was her decision and her's alone, and now she needed to fulfill it. She and the other three fighters were waiting for the timer to reach zero, they had two choices: either run away and let the others fight or confront them. 

"I have to think of something quick!" She thought. Frantically looking at the other fighters in the ring. She knew she couldn't handle two at once, so she came up with a plan. 

The sounds of the clock's tiktoks seemed like a countdown for a bomb,  the crowd was getting more excited as each second disappeared from the timer, Haruto stared intensely at the screen, not wanting to look away from this match, with only ten seconds left on the device, the crowd started to count down as well. Finally, putting herself together, she took a deep breath, Sayozane stared at the clock, the final second had been erased, and the buzzer rang.

Jumping off the pedestal, Sayozane ran to the right side of the statue but as she arrived, her eyes widened when she saw no was there. She swept her gaze left and right, searching for the missing fighter, the other two contestants still engaged in a very violent fight with each other. Suddenly, she felt a strong pain from her back and she felt herself fly off rolling around as a kicked can to the pedestal, shocking Haruto and the crowd. Regaining her breath and standing up, her opponent — a tall female Taekwando fighter — stood in front of her, looking down on the girl. Sayozane picked herself up and readied. She ran towards her opponent and began to exchange blows. Both girls used their legs and hands to perform continuous strings of attacks, however, her enemy proved to be too fast for her, ducking under the sluggish attacks, the tall fighter quickly thrusted her opponent's gut and performed a spinning kick to the head. Sayozane gasped as she was flung around by her opponent, the crowd cheered for the ferocious fighter, the sight of Sayozane being toyed around was enough to make them scream for more.

But Haruto couldn't take it anymore, rushing to the door to force it open again. The door clattered and woke up the sleeping fighter. 

"Dude... what are you doing?" Yawning, the fighter asked. 

"I need to get out of here! My friend is in danger!" He jolted, kicking the metallic door.

 The muddled fighter stared at Haruto until his attention was drawn to another noisy source, watching the peculiar but aggressive fight unfolding outside from the monitor. 

"Wait, what's going on?" He asked with widened eyes.

"Just help me please!" Haruto begged as he tried to pry the door open even harder.

"Um, okay okay." The fighter's eyes were growing clearer by the second and moved fast to help.

They tried their best to open the metal door but to no avail, all the while the fight outside grew even more ferocious. As Sayozane was still being flung and beaten around by her opponent, Haruto could do nothing but watch. 

Bruised and beaten, she could barely stand up, she wondered why the emcee still didn't call her out of the match despite being knocked down multiple times, it was then she realized, this was no sparring match, but a real fight. 

The tall fighter looked down on her beaten prey and mocked her. "You're still pushing yourself to get up? Are you stupid? Stay down!" She said. Kicking Sayozane in the gut. 

She jolted, holding her stomach and crawling on the ground. "I'm not stupid..." She said. Sluggishly standing in front of her. "I made a promise... to get stronger. And I will get stronger!" 

The tall fighter gave a disgusted look. "Then I guess this is goodbye." Readying herself to defeat her already weakened opponent.

Sayozane looked at her with fiery eyes and a blooming fighting spirit. Exciting the crowd even more. "Then let's end this!" She ran towards her opponent once more and attacked faster than ever, going on par with the enemy. 

Their battle progressed into what looked like a dance of sorts, using deadly graceful movements to try and subdue the other. Sayozane's new tactics were able to pressure her opponent. Slowly, she was able to push her back, her fists and legs, strong enough to do the job, she continued, feeling that she may have a chance to win this. 

"I have to win this! For him! She thought. Furiously attacking the girl with all her strength. 

But the female fighter . "Oh my, is this already your limit?" She said as she grabbed hold of Sayozane's leg. "You judged wrong dear." 

Parry after parry, the tall fighter retaliated against Sayozane and attacked even faster, her pressure proved too overwhelming for her, causing Sayozane to be the one being pushed back. Strength wasn't working anymore and she needed to think of another way, but too late she realized. Using advanced techniques to attack pressure points on the body, her opponent immediately subdued Sayozane. The sight of her fallen enemy made her face look dull as if she wasn't done playing with her prey, with no time to waste, her opponent raised her hand, ready to strike her head to end the battle. 

"It's been fun dear but now you have to die." She said. Chuckling at her.

With the hand coming down, the crowd gasped as to what would happen, but before they could continue, a strong punch sent the girl crashing towards the wall. Her body became bruised and her shoulder was broken, she was unconscious. The crowd looked again to see the glowing Muay Thai fighter standing over Sayozane, his body towered over her, overwhelming her with his presence. 

Immediately, Sayozane was being flung around, rolling and crashing everywhere like a toy being broken. Slaps, kicks, and punches were more than enough to make her cough up blood. Unable to bear the pain, her body rejected her mind, staying down without even an inch of strength to lift a finger. The Muay Thai fighter came closer, ready to administer the final blow on her. As he raised his wounded fist, the crowd cheered for her to get up, everyone stood still, gripping to their chairs, the climax was finally here, with fist raised in the air, the crowd covered their mouths, until...

Without any sound or strike, the Muay Thai fighter suddenly collapsed, falling on his side next to Sayozane. Leaving everyone a gasp and confused. The field became silent, everyone was left with opened mouths as something unexplainable occurred below.

"What happened?" One person said.

"Who's the winner of this match." One woman said.

"Do they all lose?" Everyone questioned what had happened.

Guards and medical personnel immediately came to escort everyone to a mobile clinic, tending their wounds. The crowd kept mumbling, the emcee full of shock as well. But soon everyone's mumbles turned to cheers once again when the last two fighters were called. This was the end of the tournament, the climax of the competition, the final battle.

Haruto vs. The Mysterious Fighter.