Medic martial squires immediately gathered around where Senior Roro lay, checking her vitals and frantically placing her on a stretcher, completely ignoring Moretsuna.
One squire hesitantly approached him.
"Senior Moretsuna, do you require any medical aid?"
Merun shook his head.
"No need."
The response sent a visible shock through the man, but he simply bowed lower and turned back toward the stretcher.
But then Senior Roro Nora woke up with a sharp gasp.
Seeing all the squires surrounding her in the middle of the arena, her eyes widened as the memory of the brutal impact came flooding back.
"...I lost."
She couldn't believe it. She had actually lost. And he hadn't even used his Martial Heart!
What a fucking disgrace!
Moretsuna slowly stepped toward her, his heavy boots echoing through the suddenly quiet arena. Senior Roro could barely raise her head to look at him.
She had just lost to an underclassman, utterly failing to take her Master's warning seriously.
What a fucking joke she was.
Expecting a mocking laugh or a celebratory shout, she braced herself.
"Shut the fu—"
Moretsuna simply stopped beside the stretcher and held out his fist, offering a fist bump. For the first time since entering the arena, his arrogant smirk melted away into a genuine smile.
"Good fight! I hope we get along in the future, Senior Roro."
Roro froze, completely shocked by his sincerity. A sudden bright flush spread across her face. Blushing furiously, she tentatively reached out and returned the fist bump, but she lacked both the strength and composure to reply.
Embarrassed, she quickly snapped her head away toward the squires.
"...S-Squires, away, quickly! Now go! Go! Go!"
The squires hurriedly carried her away and disappeared into the tunnels.
Left alone in the center of the crater, Merun stretched his shoulders and brushed a stray piece of arena dust from his white cape. He looked up at the towering VIP booths, locking eyes with Hideyoshi across the massive expanse, and gave his brother a cheeky, highly exaggerated thumbs-up.
He deliberately avoided looking toward Master Iaiashin's booth, though.
Lowering his hand, he simply turned on his heel and started walking toward the dark threshold of the competitor tunnels.
As Merun walked down the dimly lit stone corridor back to the waiting area, the ambient roar of the stadium began to fade. He noticed a figure leaning heavily against the damp wall ahead—a man with wild purple-black hair covering his eyes, quietly absorbing the dim torchlight.
In his hands, he loosely held a long, slender, dark-purple spear.
The Spearmaster's head tilted slightly as Merun approached.
"...Hey."
Merun continued his steady pace, completely ignoring the veteran.
"What would win?" the Spearmaster's voice trailed after him, low and venomous. "The strongest shield... or the strongest spear?"
Merun stopped for a moment.
Reaching inside his black dougi, he pulled out a familiar object.
He placed the scouter over his left eye, tapped the side button with a sharp click, and turned back, staring the Spearmaster dead in the eye through the glowing green lens.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The veteran returned his gaze. His hidden eyes widened beneath his fringe as a shocked, angry expression contorted his features.
For a few intense seconds, the corridor was thick with unspoken pressure.
Satisfied with whatever data flashed across his vision, Merun finally turned his back again and walked into the deep darkness of the waiting rooms, leaving the veteran entirely alone.
CREAK.
The heavy shaft of the purple spear trembled violently under the Spearmaster's sudden white-knuckled grip.
The moment he lost sight of Moretsuna's fluttering white cape, he finally snapped out of his trance. Realizing how dangerously tight his hands had become, he quickly forced his fingers to relax and exhaled a long, ragged breath.
"Hoooo... It's not like me to get riled up like that..."
He stared down the empty, dark hallway where the boy had just vanished, a cold sweat breaking out across his brow.
He looked back toward the bright exit leading to the arena sands.
"...Roro failed to destroy his device? Even without using his Martial Heart? Wait..."
His blood boiled with excitement at the realization.
"Haha! At what point during the fight did he stash his device?"
———
"W-w-w-what?! Is this real?! WHAT?!!!!!"
Mikan's voice cracked into a desperate shriek as the entire Furutsu family sat with their jaws hanging open, completely unable to comprehend what had just happened on the sands below.
Is that their baby brother, Merun?!
Who the heck is Moretsuna?
Why is he in the tournament?
Why is he fighting Martial Seniors?
HOW DID HE BEAT HER?!
The questions spun violently through Mikan's head like a hurricane.
Desperate for some logical explanation, she cast her eyes across the stadium toward the other Kinzoku VIP balcony to see if Hideyoshi had any idea what was going on.
But when she located him, her confusion only doubled.
Hideyoshi was standing at the edge of the balcony, one hand clutching his own hair while laughing hysterically like a madman.
Panicking, she snapped her head back toward Master Iaiashin.
The enigmatic master looked quite surprised herself, her eyes slightly wider than usual, though she was clearly holding it together much better than they were.
"Master... did you know about this?!" Mikan demanded, her hands slamming against the viewing rail.
Master Iaiashin smiled faintly.
She looked over at the frantic, pale faces of the family and offered a calm nod.
The reassurance did nothing to slow their racing hearts.
In an instant, Mikan, Ringo, and Ichigo were ready to sprint out of the viewing deck and rush down to the arena tunnels to find him, but a sharp raised hand from the Master cut them short.
"Don't distract him," Iaiashin commanded softly, yet with an iron authority that froze them in their tracks. "We'll all meet up at the estate later. Don't worry."
"But Master, we haven't seen him in so long..." Mikan pleaded, her voice dropping into a small, aching whine as she looked back down at the empty arena.
"Enough," Iaiashin countered, her sharp eyes scanning the shifting crowd. "Moretsuna needs to shine in this tournament. I already told you before—he has made a mortal enemy within the clan. Showcasing his full power and making an undeniable name for himself here will serve as powerful protection. For that, he needs connections."
She took a slow sip of her tea, a strange yet deeply grounded note of pride bleeding into her voice.
"What better way to build connections with his future peers than by beating them so thoroughly that they can never forget his face?"
"However, don't get your hopes up too much. Senior Roro is powerful, but she is primarily evasion-focused, like you, Mikan. Moretsuna was a bad matchup for her. But his next opponent, Senior Ephraim, is in a different league entirely."
The Furutsu deck quieted down instantly as the weight of the Master's words settled over them.
The reality of noble politics and the sheer scale of what Merun was fighting for began to sink in.
He would be fighting figures normally untouchable to people of their status.
Although Martial Masters were usually put in charge of defending border cities, it was actually Martial Seniors who enforced that defense and served as the first true line against invaders.
The realm that harnesses the power of a martial artist's heart, unleashing the full potential of their body... for a price.
Merun had reached that level of power?
Nashi turned a worried, questioning gaze toward Budo, and the sturdy man gave his wife a reassuring nod, silently telling her to trust the Master's judgment.
"While we wait for his next bout," Master Iaiashin added, setting her porcelain cup down with a soft click, "I can answer your questions."
The family looked at one another, their initial panic slowly morphing into a deep, burning curiosity.
Mikan swallowed hard. Thousands of questions raced to the tip of her tongue as she tried to decide what to ask first.
But Budo spoke before anyone else.
"...What happened to my son? Why do you refer to him as Moretsuna?"