The moment Akashi smiled, the surrounding district crossed a threshold where the environment itself no longer behaved as a passive setting witnessing conflict but as an unwilling participant being dragged into forces beyond its capacity to endure. Car alarms screamed continuously beneath fractured traffic lights, yet even those sounds gradually became difficult to isolate because countless overlapping frequencies had begun merging into a single ocean of noise. Shattered glass continued falling from distant buildings in delayed waves while smoke climbed through the evening air in twisting columns, and civilians scattered through sidewalks carrying expressions that reflected something worst than panic because fear usually emerges when people understand danger, yet what unfolded before them had already moved beyond that.
Omoshiro remained standing exactly where he had thrown the punch, his arm still partially extended while his eyes observed the destruction behind Akashi with almost clinical emptiness. Entire sections of the road had peeled upward from the earth as though enormous invisible claws had scraped through the city itself. Vehicles no longer resembled vehicles, becoming twisted arrangements of steel and broken glass scattered throughout sidewalks and storefronts. Several buildings had suffered structural ruptures extending through multiple floors, and somewhere among the chaos emergency sirens had already started approaching.
Yet his expression barely changed.
His gaze slowly lowered toward his own hand.
Omoshiro – ''I spent so many years avoiding people and avoiding situations where my body had to exert itself that eventually I stopped questioning where the limits actually existed. I understood from an intellectual perspective that I was different from others around me, because hearing conversations through walls, sensing movement from impossible distances, and observing details hidden from everyone else already made that much obvious, but understanding difference and understanding magnitude are separate things entirely, and I think I genuinely never realized what ordinary human strength was supposed to resemble.''
Akashi stared at him for several moments before laughter suddenly escaped him.
Akashi, holding his forehead while laughing – ''You are telling me that you accidentally destroyed half a district because you never learned how hard to punch? That might actually be one of the funniest things I have heard in my entire life because people spend years obsessing over power, killing for power, sacrificing for power, destroying themselves searching for power, and meanwhile you somehow reached this level while walking around completely unaware of your own damn body.''
Omoshiro looked toward the destruction once more.
People ran below collapsing signs and damaged structures while emergency vehicles struggled to approach through roads that no longer resembled roads.
Omoshiro – ''Should I feel guilty about that?.''
Akashi slowly stopped laughing.
His smile remained.
Something else had appeared behind his eyes.
Akashi – ''No, actually I think you should stay exactly like that.''
The instant those words left his mouth, the ground beneath Akashi's feet ruptured completely.
Acceleration itself had become violent.
The road collapsed downward as compressed force erupted outward in expanding rings that shattered nearby storefront windows and bent steel poles backward before Akashi had even crossed a meter of distance. Omoshiro's perception immediately exploded into activity because Theta naturally consumed surrounding information faster than conscious thought itself could process.
Sound frequencies unfolded around him.
Pressure changes appeared.
Akashi reconstructed himself within Omoshiro's awareness before visual information even arrived because Theta had already mapped shoulder movement, hip rotation, breathing rhythm, muscular tension, weight transfer and attack trajectory before Akashi physically reached striking distance.
Omoshiro's body moved instinctively.
His head tilted backward.
Akashi's fist passed several centimeters before his face.
The strike itself never landed.
Its pressure did.
Hundreds of meters behind Omoshiro, a skyscraper suddenly ruptured through its middle floors as windows exploded outward and structural beams twisted beneath force traveling beyond the original attack itself. Dust and smoke erupted from the wounded structure while civilians below screamed and fled.
Akashi smiled wider.
Akashi – ''Interesting, because I genuinely expected that attack to land. ''
No response arrived.
Akashi's knee had already launched upward toward Omoshiro's ribs.
Omoshiro reacted awkwardly because although Theta fed him impossible amounts of information, information itself and combat experience represented completely different worlds. His arms raised without proper form, without technique, without structure, relying entirely upon instinct rather than training.
The collision generated a circular shockwave expanding throughout surrounding streets with enough force to lift vehicles from the ground and fracture nearby buildings through multiple levels simultaneously. Omoshiro's body launched backward through several storefronts instantly, tearing through concrete support structures and steel frames while debris swallowed him completely beneath smoke and shattered architecture.
Akashi stood quietly afterward with both hands returning to his pockets.
His eyes remained fixed upon the smoke cloud.
Thin white layers flowed through damaged roads and ruined buildings with strange movement patterns resembling something alive searching for shape. Akashi immediately noticed his senses beginning to distort because nearby sounds suddenly felt inconsistent, distances felt unstable, and spatial awareness itself had begun shifting strangely around him.
Omoshiro stood ahead.
The mist continued expanding throughout the district until entire streets began disappearing beneath pale currents of Theta energy that drifted through shattered intersections and fractured buildings like thoughts escaping from a sleeping mind. Emergency vehicles struggled to advance through roads that had already ceased behaving as roads, because asphalt had folded upward in broken waves and entire sections of the city looked as though invisible artillery had repeatedly carved through them. Above the district, several police helicopters maintained altitude while news cameras transmitted footage toward stations across Japan, and thousands of people stared at screens without fully understanding what they were seeing.
Inside one helicopter, the cameraman could barely maintain focus because every adjustment he made immediately became meaningless.
Meanwhile Omoshiro's body continued changing through combat itself.
He had never trained.
He had never entered martial competitions.
He had never stood before another person and exchanged blows.
Everything happening now should have looked clumsy, instinct alone should eventually reach a wall where experience becomes necessary, yet Theta behaved differently because Theta itself possessed an almost terrifying relationship with information. Every failed movement entered his perception. Every imbalance entered his perception. Every shift in Akashi's hips, shoulders, breathing patterns and muscular tension entered his perception and immediately began reorganizing his own movement unconsciously.
His feet shifted.
His shoulders lowered.
His center of gravity stabilized naturally.
The surrounding mist reacted immediately.
Akashi noticed.
His smile widened.
Akashi – ''You are absurd honestly, I am watching your muscles understand movement without anyone teaching you anything. People train for decades attempting to reach natural flow between thought and action, yet your body keeps stealing understanding directly from the environment itself.''
Before the final word completely left Akashi's mouth, Omoshiro moved.
The road beneath him ruptured instantly while compressed air detonated outward around his feet. This acceleration looked cleaner than before because Theta had already corrected inefficiencies from previous movements. His right fist launched forward carrying rotating pressure currents around it while his body followed naturally through the movement, his hips transferring momentum into his shoulders and shoulders transferring momentum directly into the strike itself.
Akashi tilted his head slightly.
The punch missed by centimeters.
Omoshiro immediately shifted his weight onto his forward leg while his torso rotated and transformed the failed strike into a left hook aimed toward Akashi's ribs. Akashi stepped inward rather than away, allowing the hook to pass across his shoulder while simultaneously redirecting its trajectory with his forearm. Omoshiro instantly converted the lost momentum into a spinning elbow before his feet even finished touching the ground, and Akashi leaned backward beneath it while his own knee immediately launched upward toward Omoshiro's stomach.
The collision between Omoshiro's defensive block and Akashi's knee created a shockwave powerful enough to collapse several floors of a nearby parking structure. Concrete slabs folded downward while vehicles tumbled through clouds of dust and steel supports screamed beneath impossible pressure.
Yet Omoshiro did not stop.
His body twisted sideways through the force and his hand touched a nearby building wall while pressure currents wrapped around his feet. He ran vertically across the side of the structure before kicking off and descending again, his body spinning downward like a drill of compressed force aimed directly toward Akashi's position.
Akashi looked upward.
Then smiled wider.
Omoshiro descended with a barrage this time instead of isolated strikes, because somewhere during the fight his body had started understanding rhythm itself. His fists and elbows moved one after another with increasingly smooth transitions, each movement feeding directly into the next without interruption. A right straight traveled toward Akashi's face before immediately becoming a spinning backfist. The backfist transformed into a knee strike before becoming an elbow aimed downward. The elbow shifted into a kick while surrounding pressure waves multiplied around every movement.
Buildings exploded continuously around them.
A missed kick shattered three floors of a nearby office structure.
A redirected punch traveled through several apartment complexes.
An elbow strike missed Akashi and generated enough compressed force to flip police vehicles throughout the street below.
People screamed beneath collapsing streets while officers stared upward helplessly.
One officer slowly lowered his weapon.
His face carried the expression of a man realizing how little the effect of anything he did there had.
Officer – ''What the hell is this?.''
Above him, Akashi's expression had slowly changed.
Omoshiro had entered this battle at absolute maximum effort, allowing his body and Theta to pour every possibility into each movement while instinct fought desperately to evolve faster than defeat itself. Akashi meanwhile moved through everything almost casually, because even now his feet carried no urgency and his breathing remained completely stable.
Then Omoshiro accelerated again.
This time dozens of pressure distortions surrounded him simultaneously while Theta manipulated sound and air around the battlefield. Akashi's vision suddenly filled with multiple Omoshiros approaching from different directions because surrounding mist had begun carrying false information alongside real information.
One attacked from above.
One from behind.
One from the left.
One directly ahead.
Akashi's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then his body moved.
His right hand redirected a punch.
His shoulder shifted another strike aside.
His left elbow intercepted an incoming knee.
His leg swept beneath Omoshiro's support foot.
Everything happened within a continuous sequence resembling dance more than combat because Akashi's movements carried absurd precision. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu transitions merged naturally into Muay Thai knees, while boxing footwork connected seamlessly into Judo redirections and rotational Taekwondo kicks.
Then Akashi twisted his body.
Omega burned brighter.
Crimson energy moved through his arm.
The surrounding air suddenly became heavy.
Tenka's voice immediately echoed through his military earpiece.
Tenka – ''Akashi, your current measurements are becoming unstable because his adaptation speed continues increasing beyond projected models and your tendency to treat dangerous situations like entertainment remains psychologically concerning. I suggest ending this before combat variables continue evolving.''
Akashi laughed while ducking beneath another strike.
Akashi – ''Tenka, hearing concern from you almost sounds sweet somehow.''
Tenka immediately replied.
Tenka – ''I simply wish to complete the mission successfully because explaining to everyone that you accidentally created a disaster through carelessness would become extremely annoying.''
Akashi's laughter only grew louder.
Then his fist slowly tightened.
Red light concentrated around his hand until a perfect crimson sphere emerged, twenty meters across and so geometrically flawless that reality itself looked disturbed around its edges. The surrounding air evaporated immediately while nearby debris disappeared completely upon contact.
Akashi rotated his body.
His fist traveled forward.
Stopped centimeters before Omoshiro's chest.
Behind Omoshiro, several buildings ceased existing entirely.
No fragments remained.
No debris remained.
Only perfect circular absence extended through the city behind him, as though someone had reached into reality itself and erased matter directly from existence.
Akashi smiled while lowering his hand.
Akashi – ''I call this Nuclear Punch!'' he continued ''Your face right now makes me curious about something.''
Omoshiro stared silently toward the destruction behind him while his empty eyes slowly changed beneath the reflected crimson light.
Omoshiro remained suspended for only an instant after Akashi finished speaking.
That instant ended.
Akashi disappeared.
The space where he had been simply collapsed inward with a violent vacuum implosion as compressed air rushed toward the absence he left behind.
Omoshiro's eyes widened.
Theta perceived movement.
Theta perceived pressure displacement.
Theta perceived changing sound frequencies.
Theta perceived microscopic shifts in atmosphere.
Theta reconstructed a hundred possibilities.
Theta failed.
Akashi had already arrived.
The first punch drove directly into Omoshiro's stomach.
The impact folded his body inward immediately as shock compressed through his spine and ribcage before exploding outward across the surrounding city block.
The second strike arrived before force from the first had even finished traveling through him.
Then came the third.
The fourth.
The seventh.
The twelfth.
The twentieth.
Dozens.
Akashi's fists became red flashes appearing from impossible angles while every impact detonated with contained bursts of Omega energy that continuously compounded inside Omoshiro's body. Entire rings of compressed air erupted around them as Akashi moved around his opponent so quickly that the surrounding atmosphere struggled to refill the space he occupied between movements.
Omoshiro's body launched downward.
The impact crater reached downward through roads, underground infrastructure, train systems, parking structures and foundational support networks before erupting outward into a massive expanding dome of debris almost the size of a skyscraper itself. Entire sections of surrounding buildings folded inward while glass storms spread through neighboring districts like artificial weather systems.
People several kilometers away instinctively covered their heads despite standing outside the blast radius.
Windows shattered.
Streetlights bent.
Yet before debris even began descending back toward the ground, Akashi had already moved again.
He reached the crater instantly.
His hand shot downward.
His fingers closed around Omoshiro's face.
Omoshiro barely registered movement because his body suddenly traveled upward through hundreds of meters while surrounding air burned across his skin from friction alone.
Then Akashi appeared above him.
His body rotated.
His leg swung downward.
The kick landed directly across Omoshiro's ribs.
The resulting impact resembled artillery striking reality itself.
Omoshiro became a missile.
His body tore through one building.
Then another.
Then another.
Concrete exploded.
Steel supports twisted.
Glass clouds filled the sky.
Nine entire buildings collapsed consecutively as his body traveled through them like paper structures unable to resist the momentum forced into him.
Finally his body crashed through the center of a basketball court surrounded by residential towers.
The court exploded beneath him.
Fragments of asphalt, metal fences and shattered hoops launched skyward while massive fractures spread through the earth itself.
Silence briefly existed.
Dust rose everywhere.
Then above the destruction, crimson light slowly appeared.
Akashi floated in the sky.
Red energy drifted around him like burning particles from a dying star while his body remained perfectly still. Small fragments of debris orbiting nearby immediately evaporated upon entering the energy surrounding him.
Omoshiro looked upward slowly.
His eyes had changed.
Theta burned brighter than before.
Mist spread outward through cracks in surrounding buildings while pressure currents twisted violently around his body.
Then he stood.
His expression remained almost empty.
Yet something behind his eyes had begun moving.
Omoshiro – ''TELL ME ABOUT THAT DAMN TREE!, TELL ME THE REASON TO ALL OF THIS!!!'' inside his head he told himself, This man must know about everything them, HE MUST!
The ground beneath him exploded.
Omoshiro vanished upward.
His fist traveled toward Akashi.
This time his movement carried something different.
Understanding.
The punch landed.
The explosion consumed everything.
A sphere of destruction nearly five hundred meters wide erupted instantly while nearby buildings disappeared beneath expanding pressure waves. Roads folded upward like sheets of paper and several surrounding complexes collapsed entirely beneath the force released into the environment.
Smoke climbed toward the clouds.
Flames rose.
Pieces of skyscrapers fell through the air.
Several helicopters lost control immediately and spiraled away from the shockwave.
Then the smoke slowly separated.
Akashi remained standing.
His hand held Omoshiro's fist completely still.
The surrounding red energy around him had intensified.
His eyes shined brilliantly.
And he was smiling.
No.
He was grinning.
Akashi – ''SHOW ME MORE! SHOW ME MORE BITCH!!''
Then the city disappeared around them.
To ordinary perception they had vanished.
Explosions erupted across districts continuously while pressure waves tore through streets and buildings without visible causes. One moment an apartment complex exploded outward. Half a second later several intersections collapsed simultaneously. Shockwaves stacked over one another while the sky itself distorted beneath absurd velocity.
Omoshiro had begun flying through atmospheric manipulation.
Pressure currents wrapped around him while surrounding air compressed beneath Theta's influence, allowing him to change direction instantly without momentum limitations.
He accelerated further.
Past supersonic.
Past anything nearby civilians could process.
Windows across entire districts shattered simultaneously.
People collapsed while covering their ears as blood slowly ran from some of them.
Police communication systems started to die beneath the sound pressure alone.
Meanwhile Akashi continued smiling.