The silence of the WBBA National Dome hung in the air . Fifty thousand fans held their breath as the two bladers stared each other down from opposite ends of the plastic basin.
"Ready..." the referee commanded, his hand raised.
Shu Kurenai tightened his grip on his red launcher. The athletic tape around his palms felt damp with sweat. He looked across the stadium at Ryu O'Hara. The silver-haired boy was projecting a dark, heavy pressure that felt entirely suffocating. The jagged, chipped layer of Nidhogg gleamed under the spotlights, a physical reminder of the monster that had just tied with Valt.
*I have to hit harder,* Shu's mind raced, a frantic, uncharacteristic desperation bleeding into his usually focus. *Valt forced a draw. If I don't crush him right here, I'm falling behind. I'll be left in the dust.*
"Three!" the referee shouted.
Shu gritted his teeth. He dropped his weight further into his newly adopted, power-centric stance. His muscles coiled so tightly they burned.
"Two!"
The dark violet aura around Ryu flared, a massive, imposing shadow that seemed to swallow the stage lights.
*I need maximum torque. Now!* Shu's right arm twitched. The adrenaline and the crushing weight of his own expectations overwhelmed his muscle memory. He pulled the cord.
*Riiiiip.* Storm Spriggan flew from the launcher, hitting the plastic basin with a loud, aggressive crack.
But Ryu hadn't moved. He was still holding his launcher.
A sharp, shrill whistle pierced the air. The referee violently crossed his arms, stepping into the arena.
"Foul!" the referee barked over the PA system. "Premature launch! First warning to Shu Kurenai!"
The crowd let out a massive, collective gasp. A false start. In the Semi-Finals of the National Tournament. And it hadn't come from a nervous rookie , it had come from the absolute prodigy of the Supreme Four.
Shu stood frozen. He stared down at his taped hands. They were trembling.
Up in the VIP box, Xander Shakadera frowned, leaning over the railing. "A misfire? Shu never misfires ."
"His clock is broken," Zac the Sunrise murmured, his theatrical ego momentarily replaced by genuine concern. "Look at his eyes. He's not looking at the stadium. He's looking at the shadow."
Down on the floor, Valt Aoi gripped the barricade, his knuckles white. "Shu... what are you doing?"
Ryu stood completely still. He didn't lower his launcher. He looked at Shu, observing the rapid rise and fall of the white-haired boy's chest.
"You abandoned your baseline to mimic my power," Ryu stated, his voice carrying cleanly across the plastic basin. It wasn't a taunt. It was a observation. "But power without a foundation is just panic. You are letting the noise dictate your grip."
Shu's head snapped up, his red eyes blazing with a mix of humiliation and absolute, raw fury. He walked over, picked Spriggan out of the motionless basin, and locked it back onto his launcher with a violent, echoing *click*.
"I don't need a lecture from you," Shu hissed, stepping back into his stance. He gripped the launcher so hard the plastic housing groaned. "I am going to shatter that dark layer into dust."
Ryu's pink and grey eyes narrowed. The beast inside Nidhogg thrummed against his palm, eagerly anticipating the clash.
"Then swing," Ryu commanded.
The referee stepped back into position, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Reset! First Battle! Ready... Set!"
The stadium lights seemed to dim, entirely consumed by the rising red and violet auras clashing over the center stage.
"Three!" Shu roared, entirely abandoning his cool, collected persona.
"Two," Ryu commanded, his voice a heavy rumble.
"One!"
"Go Shoot!"
The dual launch was flawless this time, and entirely catastrophic.
Shu ripped his cord with a torque so immense that his right boot physically skidded backward against the polished stage floor. Storm Spriggan hit the slope and immediately tore a visible, white friction trail into the clear plastic of the arena. It was moving faster and heavier than it ever had in its entire existence.
Ryu unloaded his heavy aluminum launcher. Eclipse Nidhogg hit the opposite side of the basin. The chipped, jagged edge of the polycarbonate layer caught the air resistance, emitting that terrifying, high-pitched mechanical shriek.
"Take the center!" Shu screamed, throwing his arm forward.
Spriggan dove straight down the basin. But Nidhogg didn't drop down to meet it.
"Eclipse Dive," Ryu said, his voice cutting through the roar of the crowd.
Nidhogg rode the extreme upper rim, letting Spriggan commit to the center, before dropping vertically. The two Beys collided at the absolute lowest point of the stadium.
The impact sounded like a car crash. A localized shockwave blew outward, forcing the front row of spectators to shield their eyes from the blinding eruption of sparks.
Shu didn't step back. "Push him out! Counter Break!"
Spriggan's rubber tip caught the floor, violently shoving upward against Nidhogg's heavy mass.
But Ryu wasn't an immovable wall anymore. Nidhogg used the jagged, chipped edge of its layer like a hook. Instead of absorbing the blow, Nidhogg violently ground its exposed polycarbonate directly against Spriggan's metal contact points.
*SCREECH.* The sound was agonizing. Spriggan was physically trapped against the jagged edge, its rotational speed being violently bled out by the raw, unrefined friction.
"Get off!" Shu yelled, panic finally bleeding into his voice as he saw Spriggan's crimson aura begin to flicker. "Upper Launch! Break the lock!"
Spriggan surged upward with a final, desperate burst of energy, trying to completely dislodge Nidhogg and secure a burst. It was a massive, all-or-nothing strike carrying the entirety of Shu's physical and mental strength.
Ryu watched the crimson Bey surge upward. He saw the desperation. He saw the flaw.
"You swung too wide," Ryu said.
*Click.*
The internal weights inside Nidhogg snapped to the outer edges. "Eclipse Sever."
Ryu didn't just counter. He weaponized Shu's own desperate momentum. Nidhogg shifted its center of gravity instantly, dropping its heavy forge disc just a fraction of an inch to the left.
Spriggan's massive upward strike met empty air.
Because Shu had put every ounce of his power into an attack that missed its primary target, Spriggan entirely lost its grip on the stadium floor. It flew upward, clipping the jagged, chipped edge of Nidhogg's layer at the absolute worst possible angle.
The deflection was violent and entirely uncontrollable.
Spriggan was launched out of the center basin at supersonic speed. It didn't arc gracefully. It shot horizontally like a bullet.
It slammed directly into the thick, reinforced transparent wall of the WBBA stadium.
*CRACK.*
The sound echoed through the dome, silencing fifty thousand people in a fraction of a second.
Storm Spriggan didn't just burst upon hitting the wall. The sheer velocity of the impact, combined with the catastrophic damage it had taken from Nidhogg's chipped edge, pushed the physical materials past their breaking point.
The crimson Beyblade exploded.
The performance tip and the forge disc clattered uselessly onto the stage floor. But the polycarbonate energy layer hit the ground with a dull, hollow sound.
It was split perfectly in half.
The red plastic had completely sheared down the middle. Storm Spriggan was physically, irreparably broken.
The National Dome was a graveyard of silence. The ambient hum of the stadium lights was the only sound.
Up in the VIP balcony, Valt Aoi grabbed the railing, his breath completely catching in his throat. "Shu..."
On the stage, the referee stared at the two halves of the red energy layer resting on the polished floor. He couldn't even bring himself to raise his hand. He just stared.
Shu Kurenai slowly dropped to his knees.
He didn't make a sound. He crawled forward on the polished stage floor, his heavily taped hands shaking violently as he reached out and picked up the two broken halves of his partner.
He held the cracked red plastic in his palms. He stared at it. The absolute, terrifying reality of the moment crushed the breath out of his lungs. He had abandoned his precision. He had desperately chased power to keep up with Valt and Ryu. And in doing so, he had completely destroyed the one thing he cared about most.
His eyes were completely hollow. The prodigy of the Supreme Four had just been shattered, body and mind, on national television.
Across the stadium, Ryu stood up straight. Nidhogg hummed quietly as it spun to a gentle halt in the center of the arena, entirely untouched.
Ryu didn't smile. He didn't gloat. He looked at Shu, kneeling on the floor, holding the broken pieces of his Bey.
Ryu said, his voice quiet, devoid of malice but dripping with a heavy, unavoidable reality. "You forgot who you were, Kurenai. And that tore you apart."
Ryu walked to the edge of the basin, picked up Nidhogg, and slipped it into his jacket pocket. He turned his back on the broken prodigy and walked off the stage, disappearing into the shadows of the competitor tunnel.
The crowd finally began to murmur, a low, shocked buzz of disbelief that slowly built into a chaotic roar as medical and stage staff rushed out to assist Shu.
---
Deep in the subterranean locker rooms on the opposite side of the stadium, the roar of the crowd was a distant, muffled rumble.
Lui Shirasagijo sat alone on a wooden bench. The room was dark, illuminated only by a single strip of LED lighting running along the ceiling.
He had his elbows resting on his knees. In his hands, he held Lost Longinus.
A flat-screen monitor mounted on the cinderblock wall was replaying the final moments of the A-Block Semi-Final. It showed Storm Spriggan hitting the wall. It showed the red layer splitting in half. It showed Shu Kurenai kneeling on the floor, completely broken.
Lui watched the replay. He watched it a second time.
Slowly, his shoulders began to shake.
A low, dark chuckle escaped his throat. The chuckle grew louder, bouncing off the concrete walls, evolving into a harsh, entirely unhinged laugh.
"He broke him," Lui laughed, standing up from the bench, his jagged teeth bared in a massive, terrifying grin. "He actually broke him in half. The perfect, untouchable prodigy, reduced to crying over pieces of plastic."
Lui walked over to his locker, grabbing his heavy, white feather boa and wrapping it tightly around his neck. His blue eyes burned with a fierce, absolute madness.
For three years, he had waited for someone to push him. He had waited for a monster that could actually match his own destructive hunger. Shu had been a decent distraction, but Shu was fragile. Shu had rules.
Ryu O'Hara had no rules. The Anvil had dropped the deadpan mask, embraced the violence, and shattered the entire hierarchy of the WBBA without breaking a sweat.
"Finally," Lui whispered to the empty room, locking Longinus onto his launcher with a heavy, metallic slam. The blue, fiery aura violently erupted around him, chilling the air in the locker room to near-freezing temperatures.
"I'm going to tear you apart," Lui promised, walking toward the heavy steel door that led to the arena. "The Grand Final belongs to the monsters."
...
Now hold your horses , i know goat shu doesn't deserve this but red eye is just too iconic to be left out and he will have his redemption arc , see you in the next chap (^o^)(^o^)(^o^)