The fluorescent lights in the stadium infirmary hummed with a low, irritating buzz.
Shu Kurenai sat on the edge of the examination table. A medic had just finished wrapping a fresh layer of ice and bandages around his strained wrists, but Shu didn't even look at them. His red eyes were locked entirely on the small metal tray resting on the counter next to him.
On the tray lay the two cleanly sheared halves of Storm Spriggan.
Valt Aoi stood near the doorway, his hands gripping the hem of his red jacket. For the first time since the tournament began, Valt was completely quiet. He looked at the broken red plastic, then up at his best friend.
"Shu," Valt started, his voice thick. He took a hesitant step forward. "We can fix it. The WBBA has engineers. We can glue the layer, reinforce the polycarbonate—"
"It's dead, Valt."
Shu's voice was completely hollow. It didn't sound angry or sad. It sounded empty.
Valt stopped. "Don't say that."
Shu slowly raised his head. The absolute, focus that had defined the prodigy of the Supreme Four was gone. His eyes were dark, completely stripped of their usual fire.
"I tried to be something I wasn't," Shu said, his voice barely above a whisper. "I saw his power. I saw your power. I thought my precision was a weakness, so I swung as hard as I could. I forced Spriggan to take an impact it wasn't built for."
Shu looked back down at the tray. "I broke my own partner because I was weak."
"That's not true!" Valt stepped forward, his fists clenched. "You aren't weak! Ryu is just—"
"Leave me alone, Valt."
The words cut through the sterile room. Valt froze. He looked at Shu's hunched shoulders, the complete defeat radiating from him. The foundation for something cold and bitter was already taking root in Shu's chest, a dark resentment aimed entirely at his own inadequacy.
Valt slowly lowered his hands. He gave a small, painful nod, turning and walking out of the infirmary, leaving Shu alone with the broken pieces.
---
Two hallways over, the atmosphere in Competitor Room A was entirely different.
Ryu O'Hara sat on a bench, holding his heavy aluminum launcher. He was methodically tightening the screws on his grip with a small multi-tool.
The door opened. Valt walked in.
Ryu didn't look up immediately, securing the final screw. "His wrists will heal in three weeks. The polycarbonate will not."
Valt leaned against the wall. He didn't have his usual boundless energy. "He won't even look at me, Ryu. He thinks it's his fault."
"It is his fault," Ryu stated bluntly, finally looking up. "He compromised his identity to chase raw output. A blade breaks when you try to use it as a blunt instrument. It is a harsh consequence, but it is reality."
Valt looked at the floor, processing the blunt truth. He knew Ryu wasn't being cruel; he was just stating the facts of the stadium. Valt took a deep breath, slapping his cheeks with both hands to forcefully wake himself back up.
When he looked at Ryu again, the fierce determination was back in his brown eyes.
"You better win," Valt demanded, pointing a finger at Ryu. "You beat me. You broke Shu. If you lose to Lui, I'm going to be seriously annoyed."
Ryu slipped his multi-tool into his pocket. He picked up Eclipse Nidhogg from the bench. The dark violet layer, with its jagged, chipped edge revealing the glowing dragon's eye underneath, felt heavy and hot in his hand. The resonance was pulsing, a steady, aggressive drumbeat against his palm.
"I have no intention of losing," Ryu said.
He locked Nidhogg onto the launcher. He stood up, adjusting the collar of his black jacket, and walked past Valt toward the door.
"Watch the spin rotation," Ryu added as he stepped into the hallway. "It will be loud."
The walk to the main stage was a blur of concrete and flashing security lights. When Ryu finally stepped out of the tunnel, the WBBA National Dome was in a state of absolute, unhinged frenzy.
"Tokyo! We have reached the summit!" Senor Hanami roared from his hover platform, entirely ignoring the usual formalities. The stage lights were flashing in a chaotic mix of blue and violet. "The Grand Final is here! The undisputed White Tyrant, Lui Shirasagijo! Versus the undefeated Anvil, Ryu O'Hara!"
Lui was already standing at the edge of the plastic basin.
He wasn't wearing his jacket. His white feather boa was wrapped tightly around his neck, and his jagged teeth were bared in a massive, terrifying grin. The blue, fiery aura radiating from him was so intense it visibly distorted the air above the stadium.
Ryu stepped up to the opposite side of the basin. He kept his hands at his sides. He didn't project a massive aura immediately, but his presence was a heavy, suffocating weight that settled over the entire front row of the audience.
Lui rested his left arm on his knee, leaning forward over the stadium to look directly at Ryu.
"Three years," Lui said, his voice cutting through the crowd noise, aimed entirely at the silver-haired boy. "Three years ago, I walked into your private gym on that island. You didn't even say a word to me. You just dropped that dark Bey into the stadium and burst Longinus in two hits."
Up in the VIP box, Xander crossed his arms. Daigo and Rantaro, standing on the floor level behind the barricade, exchanged shocked looks. They hadn't known the history.
"You humiliated me," Lui continued, his eyes burning with a manic thrill. He pulled out his white launcher and locked the jagged, metal-heavy layer of Lost Longinus onto the prongs. "I spent every single day since then tearing apart every blader in this country just to make sure I was strong enough to rip your defense to shreds."
Lui stood up straight, aiming his launcher at the basin.
"I'm returning the favor today. I'm going to burst you in front of the entire world."
Ryu looked at the left-spinning dragon on Lui's launcher. He pulled his own heavy aluminum grip, snapping Nidhogg into place.
He didn't offer a speech. He didn't drop his deadpan expression.
"We will see," Ryu replied quietly.
The stage referee stepped forward, raising his hand high. The fifty thousand fans in the dome fell completely silent.
"Grand Final! First Battle! Ready... Set!"
"Three!" Lui roared, his voice tearing from his throat.
"Two," Ryu commanded, dropping his weight into his heavy, grounded stance.
"One!"
"Go Shoot!"
The dual launch was a violent explosion of movement.
Lui ripped his cord with a full-body snap. Lost Longinus hit the plastic floor and immediately carved a jagged, aggressive path. Because it spun to the left, its movement pattern across the basin was entirely reversed, creating a chaotic, unnatural trajectory.
Ryu unloaded his maximum torque. Eclipse Nidhogg hit the slope, the chipped edge of its layer screaming against the air resistance as it accelerated.
"Tear him apart, Longinus!" Lui screamed, throwing his arm forward.
Longinus dove for the center. Nidhogg didn't wait. It dropped down the slope to intercept.
Because Nidhogg spun right and Longinus spun left, they didn't deflect off each other. They met in a brutal, head-on collision.
*CLASH!*
The sound was deafening. A massive shower of sparks erupted from the center of the stadium, flying high into the air.
Neither Bey bounced back. The opposing spin directions caused their layers to grind directly against each other. The heavy metal dragon heads on Longinus's layer locked violently against the dense polycarbonate of Nidhogg's hollow armor.
"Push through!" Lui yelled, the veins in his neck bulging.
Longinus surged forward. The sheer weight of Lui's attack, combined with the metal contact points, physically shoved Nidhogg backward. The dark violet Bey's rubber driver shrieked as it was dragged across the plastic floor.
Ryu gritted his teeth, feeling the heavy vibration traveling up his arm.
"Anchor," Ryu commanded.
*Click.* The internal weights inside Nidhogg snapped to the outer edges. The center of gravity shifted, and the dark Bey planted itself firmly on the slope, halting Longinus's push entirely. The two Beys were deadlocked, violently grinding against each other in a shower of white-hot sparks.
Up in the VIP box, Xander leaned forward, his eyes wide. "Lui is actually pushing him. No one pushes the Anvil in a head-on clash."
"It's the metal," Zac noted, entirely serious for once. "Longinus has metal forged directly into the energy layer. It outweighs Nidhogg's polycarbonate shell."
Down on the stage, Lui laughed. It was a harsh, grating sound.
"You think a simple weight shift is going to stop me?!" Lui roared. "Death Spiral!"
Longinus didn't disengage. It used the deadlock to its advantage. The left-spinning Bey violently accelerated its rotation, using the friction against Nidhogg to forcefully drag the dark Bey up the steep slope of the stadium wall.
Ryu's mismatched eyes widened a fraction. Lui was using Nidhogg's own anchor against it, pushing the entire deadlock toward the upper rim.
"Break the lock," Ryu said, trying to force Nidhogg to disengage.
But Longinus's metal dragon heads were completely hooked into the jagged, chipped edge of Nidhogg's layer. The flaw that Ryu had weaponized against Shu was now a massive liability.
Lui thrust his fist toward the ceiling. "Crush him!"
Longinus violently shoved upward. The heavy metal contact points slammed directly into the exposed, chipped gap of Nidhogg's layer.
The impact was absolute.
Nidhogg was violently ripped from the stadium floor. The dark violet Bey was launched into the air, completely stripped of its defensive posture. It flew over the plastic rim, clattering heavily against the polished stage floor and rolling to a dead stop near the referee's boots.
The stadium was entirely silent for two seconds.
The referee stared at the dark Beyblade on the floor. He slowly raised his hand toward the White Tyrant.
"O-Over Finish!" the referee shouted. "One point to Lui Shirasagijo!"
The crowd erupted into an absolute frenzy. The undefeated Wild Card, the blader who hadn't dropped a single point since the tournament began, had just been physically overpowered and thrown out of the ring in the very first round.
Lui stood up straight. He ran a hand through his wild blue hair, his chest heaving slightly, but a massive, triumphant grin split his face. He looked across the stadium at Ryu, his blue eyes burning with cruel satisfaction.
"What's wrong ?" Lui taunted, his voice echoing through the stadium. "Is the metal too heavy for you?"
Ryu didn't answer immediately. He walked around the edge of the plastic basin. His footsteps were quiet against the stage floor. He bent down and picked up Nidhogg.
The metal forge disc was scalding hot. The dark violet layer was heavily scuffed from the metal-on-plastic collision. The resonance inside the Bey was burning with a furious, unadulterated anger.
Ryu stood up. He held Nidhogg in his right hand.
He looked at Lui. He didn't look frustrated. He didn't look angry.
The flat, robotic deadpan was completely gone. The corners of Ryu's mouth pulled upward into a sharp, genuine smirk that reached his mismatched pink and grey eyes, lighting them up with a terrifying, competitive thrill.
"You have gotten stronger," Ryu said, his voice entirely calm, but carrying a heavy, undeniable promise that sent a shiver through the front row of the audience.
Ryu walked back to his side of the stadium and locked Nidhogg onto his heavy aluminum launcher. The metallic *click* sounded like a hammer being cocked back.
Lui's grin faltered for a fraction of a second as he saw the smirk on Ryu's face. He locked Longinus back onto his launcher, his aura flaring violently.
The Grand Final was just getting started.