It wasn't over. Not even close.
Almost the moment the crater formed, it looked like some gigantic invisible hand had grabbed the planet and started tearing it open.
A split—no, a gash—wide enough to swallow mountains and rivers ripped across the surface, spreading at insane speed like jagged scars.
In the blink of an eye, the fractures webbed over nearly the entire planet.
Its structural limit was already trembling on the edge of collapse.
Whoosh
Tatsuki pulled his fist out of the ground, completely uninjured.
And that single motion became the final straw. In that instant, the planet began to break apart.
Massive chunks split free and blasted outward in every direction.
The fragments ignited as they flew, blazing with a dazzling light—like a fireworks show on a cosmic scale.
Inside that breathtaking, terrifying fireworks—the planet fully shattered, leaving only drifting debris suspended in space.
Then the core ruptured.
A small black hole began to form, silently swallowing the broken remains piece by piece.
The scene was overwhelming—like some grand, impossible mural of raw power made real.
The interstellar swarm on the surface didn't even have time to coordinate.
Before any hive response could converge, the shockwaves that swept the entire world simply erased them.
Even though Haruno and the others were in a different space—their position was still on the planet.
They experienced the planet cracking apart and the black hole forming up close, from start to finish.
"This… this is just…" Haruno tried to find the right words, but nothing fit.
There was no accurate description. No clean way to summarize it. You had to be there to understand the impact.
"Tatsuki-kun is incredible…" Chika and the others had already subconsciously replaced that planet with Earth in their heads.
One punch that could shatter a world—just imagining it made their skin crawl.
Mrs. Yuigahama, meanwhile, completely froze. Her mind was buzzing.
What was she even looking at?
A moment ago, the girls turning into winged forms and using supernatural powers was already enough to blow apart her worldview.
Now she was watching a planet—maybe even larger than Earth—get punched into fragments.
It felt so unreal that she kept waiting for someone to yell cut, like this was a movie set.
The disconnect made her dizzy.
Yumiko couldn't stop staring, her eyes locked on that unmoving silhouette hanging in the shattered world like a pillar.
That was power you couldn't compare yourself to. Power you could only look up at.
A man who felt… unreachable.
A man Yumiko couldn't help watching—and a man who belonged to Yui.
That thought dimmed her gaze.
Right. He's Yui's boyfriend. Yui is her real friend. She shouldn't let her mind drift anywhere it shouldn't.
Megumi, face as calm as ever, tilted her head and dropped a question that detonated everyone's brains:
"By the way… with the kind of power Tatsuki-kun has, how are we not getting crushed when we're… you know. Making babies?"
"…?"
Everyone stared at Megumi.
Was she the problem? Or was it them?
But then the thought actually landed—Yeah, wait.
If someone can punch a planet apart, then even a casual collision in bed should be dangerous, right?
And if you extended that logic further—If his force was anywhere near that level, they'd be dead a hundred times over.
Every girl who'd been with Tatsuki went rigid, shivering all at once.
They were overthinking it.
Tatsuki's control over his own strength was near-perfect.
He could smash a planet with one fist—or lift a tiny ant without hurting it.
As the newborn black hole continued to stabilize, Tatsuki had already left that space and returned to the others.
He spoke immediately, snapping everyone out of it.
"You saw the Apocalypse Game notice, right?"
"The notice?"
The girls finally remembered—if the planet was gone, what happened to the mission?
Then the message appeared in their vision:
[Swarm Planet 1 has been destroyed. Remaining swarm: 0. Deaths: 0. Combat mission cleared. All participants will return to the Survival Base in 30 seconds.]
Thirty seconds later, right on cue, everyone was teleported back.
…
Inside the Survival Base.
Kanae had quietly left the meeting room to the mother and daughter.
At two seats near each other on the round table, Yukino and her mother, Miyuki, had been sitting in silence for a long time.
Both were too awkward to know how to start.
Yukino was embarrassed by how openly bold she'd been.
Miyuki was ashamed of what she'd done in secret.
The silence felt like it could stretch on forever—so Miyuki finally forced herself into the parent role and spoke first.
"Yukino…"
"Yes!"
Miyuki had barely said her name, and Yukino answered instantly, tense.
Miyuki couldn't help a faint smile.
Yukino had changed… but she was still Yukino.
After a quiet breath, Miyuki asked as casually as she could manage.
"Haruno told me you've moved in with Tatsuki. Is that true?"
Yukino hesitated. Struggled. Then she told the truth.
"Mother… my sister and I live together. We're in the same apartment building as Tatsuki-kun."
"An apartment building?" Miyuki frowned. "Tatsuki-kun has money, doesn't he? Why is he living in an apartment building?"
"This… Tatsuki-kun has his reasons."
Yukino had talked about it with him before.
He'd told her it wasn't a secret. but she still didn't know how to say it to her mother out loud.
Miyuki caught the hesitation.
It clearly involved Tatsuki—something Yukino wanted to protect.
Her heart felt complicated: a little sad, and a little relieved.
Sad that Yukino wasn't the obedient little girl she used to be. Relieved that Yukino had learned how to think about her future partner first.
With an approving softness in her eyes, Miyuki said, "Yukino, don't force yourself. If it's something about Tatsuki-kun that isn't yours to share, you don't have to say it—even to me."
She understood Tatsuki's peculiarity now. And she had the restraint not to pry.
But Yukino shook her head. "No… Tatsuki-kun said it's not something that needs to be hidden."
She pressed her lips together, then spoke carefully. "He bought most of the units in that apartment building… and the people living there are Tatsuki-kun's… girlfriends."
She practically tripped over the word girlfriends, saying it so quietly it barely counted as sound.
Because she was one of them.
Miyuki's emotions surged. She already knew Tatsuki had many girlfriends, but hearing a concrete detail—they all lived together—still shook her.
How was that even possible?
Miyuki understood people well enough to know how hard jealousy and possessiveness were to control.
Especially in love.
Keeping her tone light, she asked again. "And you're close with them? No one targets you?"
Yukino shook her head. "Everyone's kind. No one has targeted us."
Not only that—Sayuri, Kie, Tamayo… they'd actually looked after her a lot.
Miyuki's eyes narrowed slightly.
"So all… twenty-something of them are living together?"
She still remembered that number Tatsuki had mentioned.
Because she'd never been that stunned in her life.