The sound of a gunshot echoes through Kawazumi's school building. The moment he hears the sound, Fumito can tell that something is wrong.
"I gotta go!" he shouts as he storms out of the classroom.
He rushes through the same hallways and rooms that Noreyu and Hirisu ran through in search of their teacher, but just like the two did before him, he finds nothing.
Eventually, he ends up on the walkway outside, where he stumbles upon the scene of the battle which has already come to an end. In a quick motion, he leaps over the railing, gracefully landing on his head and coming to a stop after rolling through several metres of foliage.
"Noreyu!" Fumito shouts as he jumps back to his feet. "What happened here? I heard a shot!"
Noreyu, still on the ground, reveals his gunshot wound to Fumito.
"I might not be able to duel today," he coughs, slowly pushing himself up. "Sorry 'bout that."
With the precision of a savage animal, Noreyu pulls the bullet out of his body. A little bit of blood splatters across his shirt.
"My body's tough enough to withstand a couple of bullets, but they do still hurt like hell..."
"You'll be fine!" Fumito encourages with a smile. "I've messed you up way worse than this, and you've always come back from it!"
Hirisu, who also just got back up, slowly approaches the two. They notice Fumito looking in their direction, to which they immediately hide behind Noreyu.
"Who is he?" Hirisu whispers. Much to their dismay, Noreyu steps to the side, landing them right in the center of Fumito's vision.
"Oh, hey! You're new here, right?" Fumito asks, overly excited as always.
"Oh... Yes, I'm- I'm new." Hirisu stutters, attempting to hide behind Noreyu again.
"We're friends," Noreyu finally says. Hirisu is very relieved.
"Whaaat?" Fumito's eyes and mouth drop wide open. "You made another friend? I thought it would never happen!"
Noreyu looks down, annoyed, but with a smile.
"Hirisu here just awakened a Demon Eye," Noreyu continues.
"That explains it."
"Shut up, Fumito!" Noreyu playfully retorts. "Anyways, while I go and fix up this little wound here, can you show them some basics?"
Hirisu looks at Noreyu, confused and a little worried, but Noreyu simply smiles.
"Don't worry. Fumito's the second best... ehh, third best Demon Eye user in town!"
With that, Noreyu walks off. Mr. Takeuchi walks with him, and takes one more look at Hirisu and Fumito.
"Are you sure that they will be alright?" he asks Noreyu.
"It'll be fine," Noreyu reassures Takeuchi. "Fumito's good with shy types like Hirisu."
"I'll take your word for that," the teacher responds. "Don't worry about school today. I'll excuse the three of you."
With Noreyu and Takeuchi gone, Fumito turns to Hirisu. "So! You're... Hirisu, right? Boy, girl?"
"Uhh..." Hirisu looks around, unsure. "Neither, really? I-"
"Alright, sure!" Fumito smiles at Hirisu and gives them a thumbs up.
"You just awakened your Demon Eye, correct?" he asks next, inspecting Hirisu's left eye where some residual energy lingers.
"Yeah, I guess... I don't know why it happened, but..."
"No prior knowledge of Demon Eyes?"
"I... knew they existed, that's about it."
Fumito throws his fist into the air, a massive grin on his face. "I always wanted to do this! I'll teach you everything I know!"
He radiates with excitement, to the point that he emits a visible glow. "Let's get started immediately! So! Uhh..."
Suddenly, all the energy disappears from Fumito's body.
"Are you... alright?" Hirisu quickly asks.
"I... I don't know how to start!" Fumito yells at the sky.
Fumito seems so disappointed with himself that Hirisu has to wonder if he's about to cry.
"But hey, that's fine! We'll figure it out as we go!"
In a flash, all of his energy returns, and he runs to an area with less foliage around. He opens his Demon Eye, which emits his signature orange glow. Flames burst out around him, startling Hirisu.
"So, one thing you should know is that Demon Eyes do nothing more but produce energy. From what I understand, this energy is the same stuff that everything around is made of."
He looks at Hirisu in anticipation.
"Why don't you activate your eye and try it out?"
Hirisu seems unsure at first, but quickly closes their left eye, then opens it again to activate their Demon Eye, emitting a deep blue glow. "What... now?"
"Try channelling some energy on your hand!" Fumito suggests. "Just kinda push the energy through your body until it's where you want it!"
They do as told, creating a small blob of blue energy above their palm.
"Is it there?" Fumito asks. "It's hard for me to see, since I don't have a Water eye."
Hirisu holds their hands closer to their eye, trying to analyze the energy. The interwoven lines of deep blue strings feel like a tiny cosmos in their hands. They move like waves in a maelstrom, yet they have no center to swirl around. Whatever is in their palm right now is something they can't even begin to comprehend, but also something that feels strangely familiar, too.
"That's... Water energy?" Hirisu finally speaks up, snapping out of their trance. "I've never seen something like this before."
"You can't see energy without a Demon Eye," Fumito explains. "But now you should see this stuff all over the place at the ocean! If you put a little bit of your own energy in, you might be able to make waves in the water. Like how I can control the movement of flames!"
Fumito creates a small ball of Fire energy in his palm. While they can feel its presence, Hirisu can barely see this energy. To Fumito, it must look just as mesmerizing as the Water energy looks to them.
"Now for the hard part! Try to make some real water!"
Fumito focuses on the energy in his hand, which suddenly bursts into a flame.
"What was that?" Hirisu almost yells, surprised. The sudden glow startled them.
"You've gotta do that thing, but with water!" Fumito tries to explain with limited success. "However that works..."
Hirisu tries to focus on the energy, but it's no use. After a while, it simply disperses into many tiny strands of blue.
"Just keep trying!" Fumito attempts to encourage, despite not really helping. "You'll get it eventually!"
"How would this energy turn into real water..." they think. "Is it... Oh!"
Suddenly, water shoots from Hirisu's hand, splashing them in the face.
"That's it! I've got it!" They turn to Fumito, almost matching his excitement. "Energy is not the only component of water, so it's not enough on its own. So I need to use the moisture in the air, in combination with lots of energy, to make water!"
"That's awesome!" Fumito responds. "Then, let's battle!"
"What?!" Hirisu, taken aback by the request, steps back.
"Yeah, of course! How else are you gonna learn?"
A large fireball forms in Fumito's hands as he rushes towards Hirisu. "No, wait!" Hirisu tries to shout, but Fumito can't be stopped anymore. Instinctively, Hirisu drops to the ground, trying to dodge the fireball. "That won't work!" Fumito jumps into the air, aiming and throwing the fireball at Hirisu.
"No!" In less than a second, Hirisu focuses energy in their hands. It rises into the air, suddenly forming a wall of water that engulfs the fireball.
"Woah, you're a natural at this!" Fumito shouts.
"I... saw that technique once... I think."
The blue glow in Hirisu's eye fades away as their head drops to the ground again. With all their energy spent so suddenly, they collapse.
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Insight: Energy
The twelve types of energy that make up the world are what give Demon Eye users the ability to accomplish feats deemed magical by ordinary humans. The eye produces a large amount of energy very quickly, especially when the user is otherwise resting. The user can then emit that energy and transform it into a stable form of their element to use in battle.
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After a few hours of extensive training, Fumito and Hirisu take a walk through the town to relax a little. In just a few hours, Hirisu not only grasped how to create and mold water, but also significantly increased the efficiency of their energy usage, so that they can create a wall again without collapsing immediately.
"There's a store I really want to show you!" Fumito says, full of energy, as usual. "You can buy all sorts of Demon Eye stuff there!" He runs ahead a little, turning back towards Hirisu as he does. "C'mon, c'mon! You're not exhausted, are you?"
"Fumito, be careful!" Hirisu attempts to warn, but their call comes too late as Fumito bumps into a girl trying to rush past him.
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"Oh, whoops! You alright?" he tries to ask the girl, but she has already run past. Hirisu only gets a quick look at her: she looks to be around their age, maybe a bit older, with black hair that reaches down to her shoulders. The tips of her hair, as well as several strands, are white, likely dyed. As she runs, she holds her right hand over her left eye.
She only manages to run a few meters further before she suddenly drops to her knees. Her body is drenched in sweat.
Even from a distance, Hirisu can hear her heavy breathing. Without hesitation, they run to her side. "What's wrong? Do you need help?"
The girl is still covering her eye, forcing her hand into her face, to the point where it looks painful to even watch. But even with parts of her face covered, the panic in her expression is undeniable. She turns a little to face Hirisu. There's more white in her hair than before.
"Get away!" she yells at them. "Get away from me! Run!"
"Hirisu!" Fumito suddenly shouts. He dashes in to shove Hirisu out of the way, sending them tumbling to the ground. At that moment, a sudden flash of light shoots through the fingers of the girl's right hand, blinding Fumito. Her hand drops down, revealing a Demon Eye glowing with white energy. Six spike-shaped black patterns decorate the eye, three pointing up, and three pointing down.
In an instant, she leaps at the blinded Fumito, pushing him against a wall with ease. She stabs her fingers into his face as he tries to push her away. "What... is she?!" Fumito thinks, staring at the one attacking him. He feels claws digging into his skin.
Saliva drips out of her open mouth, and her hair has turned almost entirely white. The expression on her face is one of mindless bloodlust, like a starved predator hunting for food.
Fumito opens his Demon Eye, releasing a large burst of energy that pushes her away. She doesn't even acknowledge the attack, instead she immediately rushes at Fumito again, when a wall of water suddenly stops her.
"Fumito, we're getting out of here!" Hirisu yells as the girl breaks through the blockade with ease. Fumito nods, and the two run through the streets, with the girl still chasing them.
The girl's relentless pursuit drives them to a large wooden bridge, where people around them are running in panic, trying to get away from the girl just as Fumito and Hirisu are. While still running after the two, the girl suddenly forms a spike out of Light energy on her hand, letting out a mindless scream as she throws it at Fumito.
The spike hits his shoulder, cutting through his skin. Blood spurts onto his clothes.
"Fumito!" Hirisu yells out. Fumito looks at them in terror. "I thought so before, but... I really felt it in that attack. She's out to kill."
"We have to fight," Hirisu realizes. "Running won't save anyone. Not us, not the bystanders... not her."
Both of them turn around to face the girl, who already formed several more spikes that float beside her. With the same terrifying look on her face, she runs onto the bridge.
Fumito rushes down the curving slope of the bridge, dodging two of the spikes thrown at him, then shoots out a small flame to break a third.
She's not aiming properly... I can get to her!
Just as he gets close enough to attack, the girl shoots out some construct of Light energy from her palm, aimed at Fumito's chest.
He jumps back, but the construct continues towards him. "Wave Wall!" Hirisu shouts, appearing behind Fumito to block the attack. "I've got your back, Fumito!" The construct stops at the wall, retracting into the girl's hand.
Hirisu urges Fumito to back away as the girl approaches again, holding her palm towards the two.
Instantly, two more constructs shoot out, now taking a more clear form. Their shape resembles something like a squid's tentacles, although much sharper at the tip.
"Fireball!" A glowing mass of fire forms between Fumito's hands, shoots away from him, and blazes right through one tentacle, burning it to shreds. "How do you like that!"
The second tentacle shoots past Fumito. Just as he thinks himself safe, it turns to wrap around him, trapping him in its grasp. A weirdly sharp sensation from its surface cuts him.
"Fumito!" Hirisu shouts as they attempt to stop the tentacle with their hand, but its sharp surface cuts their skin too while it continues wrapping around Fumito. It holds him in place, unable to move. With her other hand, the girl summons a large cluster of tentacles that shoot at the vulnerable Fumito.
"Don't hurt him!" Hirisu yells at her, summoning a large wall of water to block the attack. Most of the tentacles can't break through but one cuts right through the middle.
I have to stop it!
Hirisu raises their hand to attack, covering it in water to chop through the sharp tentacle just before it can reach its target. Despite the protective layer, the sharp edge cuts a large wound into their hand, but they manage to slice it in half.
Suddenly, the tentacle wrapped around Fumito disappears. The light glow from the girl's Eye fades as she collapses to the ground.
"Is it over?" Hirisu wonders, carefully observing the girl from a distance.
"Hey!" Fumito shouts as he runs towards the girl. "Do you need help? What happened?"
Hirisu can't help but worry. Something tells them that the fight is not truly over. They try to call Fumito back, but he doesn't hear their warning.
Something bad is about to happen.
Fumito reaches out to the girl, trying to help her up. But Hirisu sees what Fumito does not - her Light eye has already started emanating energy again.
That idiot!
"Fumito!" In a split-second decision that can only be described as pure instinct, Hirisu dives between Fumito and the girl, just barely in time.
Because in that very second, her Demon Eye jolts back open, unleashing a blinding explosion of Light energy that engulfs the entire bridge. Wooden planks and pieces of pavement shoot in all directions, but the epicenter of the explosion is too bright for anyone to see. For a few seconds, a loud, piercing noise drowns out all other sound.
And as the light fades again, it reveals a massive hole in the bridge. Some planks were broken in half, parts dangling down into the hole, while others were ripped out of the bridge, lying around among the destruction. The slow, yet deep Kawazumi River flows below, filled with bits and pieces of debris and planks. Among the pieces, a small spot in the water is stained red.
"Hirisu!" Fumito, who landed on a grass patch on the side of the river, calls out. "Where are you?"
He hears a loud hissing noise close to him, and he turns to face the girl, her form even more deranged than before. Her body has been messed up and hurt from the explosion, her hands and face covered in blood. Her expression is one of madness, the blood from her open mouth washing away in the streams of drool. Below her closed right eye, a single tear mixes into the blood.
"What..." Fumito stares at the beast in front of him. He's trembling. But he isn't scared at all. No, another emotion is brewing inside of him. "What did you do... Where's Hirisu?"
In a sudden fit of anger, Fumito charges at the girl, his fist engulfed in flames. His eyes, burning with rage, meet her empty expression as his attack connects. The punch launches her several meters away. It burns a hole through her clothing and even leaves a visible mark above her stomach, but she seems entirely unfazed.
Without a moment of hesitation, she regains her balance and rushes back at Fumito, who runs at her just as mindlessly. Both of them run across the tiny patch of grass on the side of the river, no room to dodge to the sides, fire and light rushing through the air. Fumito counters each and every spike thrown at him with fireballs as the two get closer and closer to each other. He lets out a scream.
Fumito's fist flies first. But hers is faster.
The sounds of battle, echoing through the air below the bridge, are drowned out in the river, a strange, ethereal graveyard of debris in complete silence. Hirisu, bleeding from their stomach after taking the earlier blast point-blank, sinks deeper and deeper into the water, flowing away with the current. Their eyes slowly open as they realize what has happened.
In their mind, they want to struggle for air, reach for the surface. But, much to their own surprise, their breath isn't running out at all. They are breathing.
Is this... my Demon Eye's power?
Every drop of water in the river is filled with energy. The spirals, the flow, like a million tiny worlds. They are floating, drifting. It's comforting to Hirisu. They want to close their eyes.
A piece of drifting wood hits them. And finally, the noise from outside reaches their ears. Fumito's screams, his pain. It seems so distant still.
I have... to help him.
Despite the water's safety, Hirisu tries to surface, their movements in the water smooth and easy as they swim carefully through the wooden planks and pieces of concrete.
Fumito runs in to attack again, the smell of flames filling the air around him. The girl, despite being pushed back so much by Fumito's attacks, still doesn't relent, determined to chase after her prey until the very end.
"This will finish you off!" Fumito shouts, ducking under a spike that shoots just above his head.
He jumps at the girl, a burning fist ready.
It's already too late to turn back when he sees the tentacles that are about to pierce through his chest.
"Wave Wall!" Hirisu shouts, leaping out of the river to land between Fumito and the girl once again. Just that this time, the wall protects both of them from the attack.
The girl jumps away, instinctively anticipating a counterattack. Indeed, as the water drops to the ground again, four deep blue strings emerge from Hirisu's hands.
"Hirisu! You're alright!" Fumito yells with a smile. The rage fades from his eyes, but the fire still burns. "I knew you'd make it!"
"I'm fine!" they respond. "But look at yourself!"
Fumito's body is covered in blood. Most of his clothes have already been ripped to shreds, exposing his bleeding chest.
But Fumito doesn't bother with his own safety for a second, as he spots the girl charging towards Hirisu. Her eye is locked on to the bubble forming from their strings. Fumito quickly rushes in front of Hirisu, giving them a simple thumbs-up as he slams his hands to the ground.
"Flame Pillar - Prison!" Just before the girl can reach Fumito, three pillars of fire shoot out of the ground around her. She lands in between them, and doesn't hesitate to lunge at Fumito again. But even though she jumps through the gap in between the pillars, the flames keep her locked in place, unable to move.
The bubble has reached a size where it is about to burst, so Fumito quickly dashes across the river to stay out of the explosions. The pillars however stay in place just a little longer. A volley of tentacles aimed at the bubble in a desperate attempt to stop the attack is quickly burned away.
"Aqua Focus Burst!"