Asakusa had become a hellscape.
Flames climbed into the night in long, writhing columns. Roof tiles cracked. Support beams screamed. Smoke rolled across the district in black waves as the people of Asakusa fought tooth and nail to keep their home from being swallowed whole.
And in the middle of that ruined street—
Benimaru and Kidan stood before Charon.
The giant man in white had not rushed them.
He had only walked into their path, looked at Kidan, and made his intent clear.
He was here to take him.
Benimaru stepped half a pace forward, placing himself squarely between Charon and his little brother.
The fire around his arms rose.
Kidan felt the same heat stir inside him as the scattered flames around the street bent toward his will.
Charon watched them in silence.
His broad frame did not move.
His blindfolded face remained unreadable.
Then he spoke, calm as ever.
"I don't have time for this."
Benimaru's answer came instantly.
"Too bad."
And then he moved.
Benimaru shot forward in a blur, one hand igniting into a burning blade as he closed the distance in a single breath.
"Fire Moon!"
A crescent slash of flame carved toward Charon's chest.
At the same time, Kidan thrust out his hand from the rear, seizing the flames from broken lanterns and burning stalls nearby, sending them spiraling in from both sides to trap the giant man in a crossfire.
The coordination was immediate.
Benimaru attacked from the front.
Kidan twisted the battlefield itself around the strike.
Charon did not dodge.
Benimaru's flaming hand-sword hit first.
The impact boomed through the street.
Kidan's side flames crashed in a half-second later.
For a moment, Charon vanished inside the burst.
Then the fire blew outward.
Charon was still there.
Unmoved.
Steam and heat rolled off his body in waves, but there was not even the slightest sign of damage.
Benimaru's eyes sharpened.
'What?'
Kidan felt his pulse jump.
'He took that head-on...!'
Charon tilted his head slightly.
"Too direct."
Then he moved.
A backhand came sweeping across the space with enough weight to shatter a wall.
Benimaru ducked under it by instinct.
Kidan bent the nearby fire beneath his own feet and slid sideways just before the shockwave tore through the place where he had been standing.
The storefront behind them exploded apart.
Charon looked from one brother to the other.
"...Fast."
Benimaru didn't give him another breath.
He pivoted in low, right hand flaming, left hand already coming around.
"Dusk!"
Three rapid hand-sword strikes flashed in succession, each one aimed at a vital line. Neck, ribs, jaw.
Charon raised one arm and absorbed the sequence head-on.
The force of the strikes was enough to drive even him a half-step back.
Kidan saw it.
He saw the opening instantly.
"Big brother, now!"
Benimaru leapt backward rather than forward.
Kidan seized the flames Benimaru had just created and compressed them into a tight, rotating ring around Charon's feet.
At the same moment, Benimaru thrust both palms out.
"Moonlight!"
A broad horizontal blast tore through the smoke and smashed into Charon from the side.
The compressed ring of fire erupted upward with it, cutting off his path.
Charon had to actually brace.
The street split beneath him.
Dust and flame burst upward.
Kidan's eyes widened. 'We moved him!'
Benimaru landed lightly, not relaxing for even a second.
"Don't stop."
"Right!"
The brothers rushed together.
Benimaru from the front.
Kidan from the blind side.
Their timing was almost perfect.
Benimaru attacked with brutal Asakusa directness, his Iai Hand-Sword forms still rough compared to Hibachi's but already fierce and dangerous. Kidan used the same forms more fluidly, changing the angle of existing flames and stitching Benimaru's attacks into larger combinations.
Where Benimaru cut—
Kidan bent the fire to make the cut wider.
Where Kidan trapped—
Benimaru struck to force Charon into the trap.
Charon's calm finally shifted.
Not to panic.
But to acknowledgment.
'They work well together,' he thought.
Benimaru came in high with Daybreak, the rising slash screaming up from below.
Kidan controlled the flames bursting off the ground from the first attack and bent them back downward a split second later—
Creating a second angle.
A false follow-up.
Charon blocked the first.
The redirected flames from Kidan hit his shoulder from behind.
The street thundered again.
This time Charon slid.
Only a little.
But enough.
Benimaru saw it and almost smiled.
Kidan did smile.
"We can do this!"
Charon exhaled.
"Maybe."
Then he planted one foot.
The air changed.
Benimaru's instincts screamed.
He grabbed Kidan's collar and yanked him backward just as a violent burst of heat exploded outward from Charon's body.
BOOM.
The accumulated force of every strike they had landed came back at once.
The shockwave tore through the road, blasted apart nearby debris, and launched both brothers across the street.
Kidan hit the ground hard and rolled, coughing.
Benimaru crashed through a damaged railing and landed on one knee, skidding.
Smoke curled around Charon.
He lowered his arm.
"That's my turn."
Benimaru wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and stared.
'He stored our hits... and gave them back?'
Kidan pushed himself up more slowly, face pale from shock.
Charon stepped forward once.
Then again.
Every step heavy.
Certain.
"I don't need to beat both of you," he said. "I only need him."
His face angled toward Kidan.
Benimaru's flames surged hotter.
"No."
The answer came from somewhere deeper than anger.
Deeper than fear.
It was pure instinct.
The instinct of an older brother.
Benimaru stood fully, the fire around his arms burning brighter now.
Kidan rose beside him, breathing harder but still steady.
They looked at each other.
And understood.
No words needed.
Then they moved again.
This time even faster.
Kidan swept both hands wide, drawing flames from three burning buildings at once. They roared through the street like living streams and coiled around Benimaru's advance.
Benimaru cut into the torrent with Fire Moon, splitting it into twin blazing crescents that curved around Charon from either side.
Charon turned to absorb one—
And Kidan snapped his fingers.
The second crescent changed direction mid-flight.
Charon's body twisted just enough to keep it from hitting Kidan's intended spot cleanly.
Benimaru was already there.
"Sunset!"
His descending slash crashed into Charon's guard with explosive force.
Kidan followed from below with Daybreak, using existing flame under the street to drive the second strike upward.
Front.
Below.
The teamwork was seamless.
Even Charon's feet dug into the broken stone.
For the first time, there was genuine inconvenience in his silence.
Not because they could hurt him badly.
But because they refused to let him simply walk through them.
Haumea, watching from above, clicked her tongue.
"Why is this taking so long?"
Below, Charon absorbed another pair of strikes and retaliated with a short-range burst that forced the brothers apart. Benimaru crossed his arms and took the edge of the blast. Kidan bent as much of the heat away from himself as he could, but still got thrown back.
Charon stepped between them, trying to break their rhythm.
That was the real threat.
If he separated them, the whole fight changed.
Benimaru saw it and launched himself without hesitation, wrapping both arms around Charon's torso and driving with everything he had.
Kidan instantly understood.
He pulled every loose flame in the area toward Charon's back, creating resistance. Like a burning wall Benimaru could shove him into.
Charon actually stopped moving forward.
He looked down slightly at the black-haired boy trying to physically halt him.
"...Stubborn."
Benimaru grit his teeth.
"He's... my brother."
Then Kidan came in from the side.
"Dusk!"
Three rapid slashes hit Charon's flank in succession, forcing him to turn his frame.
The moment he did—
Benimaru released, pivoted, and drove a brutal elbow into Charon's jaw.
A clean hit.
Charon's head moved.
Kidan's eyes widened in disbelief.
Benimaru's too.
Charon slowly looked back at them.
He looked faintly annoyed.
Above them, Haumea threw up a hand.
"Oh, come on!"
---
Elsewhere in Asakusa, Konro's battle with the Giant Infernal reached its breaking point.
The thing was unraveling parts of the district just by moving.
Its corpse-flesh body bulged and shifted around the living Infernal core hidden within, while the Asakusa fire soldiers harried it from every side, buying Konro windows to strike.
But the cost was rising.
One more collapsed lane.
One more ruined block.
Too many close calls.
Konro landed atop a broken shrine gate, breathing hard.
The giant turned toward him and roared, one arm swollen with fire and corpse matter as it prepared to flatten half the street.
Below, several of the Asakusa men looked up.
"Vice-chief!"
Konro stared at the thing.
Then at the civilians still being moved out beyond it.
Then his expression hardened.
"Enough."
He brought both arms up.
Flames ignited along his shoulders and forearms, burning hotter.
Hotter.
Hotter still.
The color shifted.
The men below froze.
One of them swallowed hard.
"...No way."
Another whispered, awe in his voice.
"Crimson Moon..."
Konro's gaze never left the giant.
The fire around his arms compressed into a terrifying density.
The air trembled.
Even Benimaru and Kidan, still locked in battle with Charon streets away, felt it and looked over instinctively.
A huge sphere of fire began to form.
Red.
Deep red.
Like a moon dragged down into the district.
Kidan's eyes went wide.
"That's...!"
Benimaru stared too, despite himself.
'Konro-san...!'
Konro thrust both arms forward.
"Crimson Moon."
The fireball launched.
It crossed the street in an instant and smashed into the Giant Infernal's core mass.
There was a heartbeat of silence.
Then—
The district exploded red.
A massive blast swallowed the giant whole, the shockwave tearing upward rather than outward as Konro controlled the direction of the release with precision born from long experience.
When the fire cleared—
The Giant Infernal was gone.
Only a burning crater remained.
Benimaru and Kidan could only stare.
Kidan actually forgot Charon for a second.
"...Amazing."
Benimaru said nothing.
But his eyes burned.
He had just seen the kind of strength that left marks on the soul.
---
High above the rooftops, Hibachi's battle had reached its climax.
The Demon Infernal roared across the skyline, one horn broken, body carved with burns and cuts, but still monstrously powerful. Hibachi was no better. His clothes were scorched. Blood marked his skin. His breathing had grown heavier.
And yet—
His grin remained.
The Demon Infernal charged.
Hibachi met it head-on.
"Fire Moon!"
A crescent slash tore across its arm.
"Moonlight!"
A horizontal wave of flame ripped through its torso and forced it sideways.
"Daybreak!"
A rising strike exploded into its jaw and snapped its head back.
The Demon retaliated with a blast of raw force that shattered the roof under Hibachi's feet, but Hibachi spun through the falling debris, flames roaring along his hand like a true blade.
"Red Sun!"
A ring of fire detonated outward, swallowing both him and the Demon in a blinding flash.
When the light dimmed, the Demon was still standing.
Barely.
Hibachi landed opposite it, blood running from a cut at his brow.
Then he lowered his stance.
The fire around him changed.
The Demon Infernal felt it too.
Its body tensed.
Hibachi's grin widened one last time.
"Nichirin."
Sun Wheel.
The final form.
The fire chief's finishing blade.
He vanished.
For a fraction of an instant, all Asakusa saw was a ring of incandescent flame crossing the night.
Then Hibachi passed through the Demon Infernal.
A perfect blazing circle.
The skyline went white.
The Demon Infernal froze.
A line of light appeared across its body.
Then the entire monster came apart in an eruption of fire so intense it lit the whole district like dawn.
Below, even Charon paused and looked up.
Haumea's expression soured.
"Seriously?"
The blazing remains of the Demon Infernal rained down as harmless embers.
Hibachi landed on a roof ridge, chest heaving, Nichirin's fire fading from his hand.
He looked down at the district.
Haumea clicked her tongue in disgust.
Every part of the plan was coming apart.
The corpse-made Infernals had failed.
The giant had failed.
The Demon Infernal had failed.
And Charon—
Her eyes dropped toward the street below where he still stood facing the two boys.
"Charon!" she shouted. "Stop playing around and grab him already!"
Charon did not answer.
But below, his posture shifted.
The air around him grew heavier.
Benimaru sensed it at once.
He stepped in front of Kidan again, fire roaring around both arms.
Kidan bent every nearby flame toward himself, panic creeping into his chest despite his best efforts.
This time Charon was going to force it.
He took one step forward.
Then—
Reality split.
A crack of black-red light tore open behind Kidan.
A rift.
Kidan felt the air behind him vanish.
He turned too late.
The pull caught him instantly.
"Big brother—!"
Benimaru's eyes widened in horror.
"Kidan!"
He lunged.
So did Kidan.
Their hands stretched toward each other through heat and sparks and broken air—
But the rift yanked Kidan backward.
Benimaru's fingers brushed his.
Only brushed.
Not enough.
Kidan fell into the darkness.
The rift snapped shut.
Silence.
For one impossible second, Benimaru simply stared at the empty space where his brother had been.
Then the truth hit.
His knees gave.
"...No."
His voice cracked.
He stumbled forward and grabbed at empty air.
"No! KIDAN!"
Nothing.
No response.
No hand reaching back.
No white hair.
No blue eyes.
Gone.
Benimaru's face crumpled.
The fire around him sputtered wildly as tears burst from his eyes.
He fell to his knees in the ruined street, shoulders shaking, hands clenched so hard they trembled.
"Kidan..."
The word came out broken.
Small.
Like he was a child again.
Like the whole world had ripped something out of him and left only pain behind.
Above, Haumea smiled.
Below, Charon watched in silence.
And all around Asakusa, the flames still burned, unable to warm the emptiness that had just opened in Benimaru's chest.
---
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