The moon hangs high above the peaceful sleeping town of Kawazumi. Faint lights from the street lanterns illuminate the city, although only the bugs circling the orange glow seem to need them.

Beyond the lanterns' reach, the figure cloaked in black walks the empty streets. He turns into an alley, where a group of five is waiting for him. Their faces are impossible to make out in the darkness, and their bodies are hidden under cloaks. Despite this, their strong muscles are visible even through the fabric.

"Fascinating..." the assassin notes, as he inspects the five in front of him. "You are all well-trained, I see. As to be expected from that tribe." He walks around the group slowly and continues talking. "You'll strike when the sun rises. I will assign each of you one of the targets. Take them all out, without fail."

Night turns to day as a ray of sunlight infiltrates Noreyu's cave, sneaking past the curtains. "Oh... morning already?" he yawns as he gets up from his mattress. He approaches the golden light coming from outside and pulls his curtains to the side. He flinches a little as the blinding light of the sun bathes the cave in gold.

Noreyu steps out of the cave and into the forest. The wind blows through his hair.

"There's a strong breeze today," he says to himself. "I like it."

Suddenly, he notices a noise coming from the tree next to him. A rustling sound in the leaves - there's someone here.

But before he can even inspect the tree, he notices someone in the distance rushing towards him. The person leaps into the air, eight small rocks orbiting them as they dash at Noreyu. The rocks shoot ahead of them, flying towards Noreyu, who quickly pushes them all away with a sudden release of Wind energy. Both combatants already have their Demon Eyes open, one teal, one brown.

As he sees another volley of rocks, Noreyu quickly jumps backward into his cave. The rocks rush through the air like bullets, but as they are about to hit, Noreyu pulls the curtains shut. They fly into the soft material, which gives in from the impact but doesn't break.

Noreyu dramatically pulls the curtains open, which throws the rocks to the ground. But when he attempts to jump out of the cave, a large, brown pillar that wasn't there before blocks the entrance. He attempts to break it with a punch, but it doesn't give in even slightly.

Through the gap between the pillar and the cave walls, Noreyu can barely make out a man outside approaching him. His body is broad and muscular, most of his skin is exposed except for a few parts covered by brown cloths draped over him. There are two black lines on his face, under the eyes.

The man's Demon Eye has a brown glow and three black markings that go through the eye. The outer two have an inward curvature.

"Who are you?" Noreyu shouts. "The third guy of that burglar duo?"

The man continues his slow approach as he begins to speak. "I am a warrior of the earth. And I am here to eliminate you, Noreyu."

"How do you know my name?" Noreyu continues asking, still stuck behind the pillar.

"That does not concern you. All that matters is that you must die."

His voice is deep and stern, resolve evident in his words. Noreyu can tell that the only way out is a fight.

"Before we kill each other, can I have your name?" Noreyu asks, his voice calm while he rests his right hand on the side of the pillar. "You know mine, so it's only fair."

"My people do not need names," the man responds. "All that matters is my rank. Iwa-Ni."

"Iwa-Ni?" Noreyu repeats. "Weird name. Eh, whatever." He grins, and energy flares up in his eye.

His fingers, coated in Shredding Wind, drill through the pillar, carving countless tiny cuts into the rock. With a sudden glow of teal energy, it bursts into pieces. Noreyu jumps out of the cave and lunges at Iwa-Ni, who raises a mass of rocks from the ground.

The rocks form into a rectangular shape, connecting to a stick of brown energy he creates in his right. The stick pierces through the rocks, molding them into a weapon of sorts.

"Weapon Art - Earth Hammer!" he shouts and slams the giant hammer into the ground. Noreyu dodges to the side, to which Iwa-Ni lifts the hammer out of the dirt and attempts to ready another attack, but Noreyu is too fast.

Iwa-Ni can barely block Noreyu's incoming attack by stomping on the ground, which raises another pillar. Noreyu stops, giving Iwa-Ni an opening to jump away.

Noreyu vaults onto the pillar, looking down at Iwa-Ni. "Woah, you really suck at this, don't you?"

Iwa-Ni stares back, keeping a stern expression.

"Is that really all you got?" Noreyu mocks, smirking. "You're too much of a coward to even try to counter. Even though you got the first attack, you're forced to follow my pace."

"What does my fighting style matter to you?" Iwa-Ni responds, still seeming calm. "Be glad you are still alive."

Without responding, Noreyu jumps into the air, channeling Wind energy around his hands. Four small clusters of energy form into long, slim shapes. The energy creates solid structures which Noreyu grabs out of the air. "Wind Knives!"

Noreyu chucks the knives at Iwa-Ni, who blocks with his hammer. But he fails to see the plan behind the attack. Noreyu uses the opening to dash at him while the hammer is right in front of Iwa-Ni's eyes. He doesn't even notice Noreyu's approach until he lands on top of the hammer.

"I just think it's funny," Noreyu says, leaning over Iwa-Ni. "That such a weakling like you would try to go after me."

Under the weight, the hammer crashes into the ground, startling Iwa-Ni as Noreyu jumps off again and kicks at his face with a well-aimed strike infused with Wind energy.

Iwa-Ni is blown away, but his grip on the hammer remains strong. He lands a few meters away, the hammer in his hands crashing through a few trees on the way. Noreyu shoots another volley of Wind Knives to cover the distance once again, but instead of knocking them away, Iwa-Ni attempts to dodge. He steps out of the way of most, but one of them pierces into his left arm.

Despite the injury, he swings the hammer at Noreyu, who circles around Iwa-Ni's left, avoiding several smashes as he closes in more and more to attack.

With Shredding Wind in his hand and a grin on his face, Noreyu readies himself to land the finishing blow. In a desperate move, Iwa-Ni smashes the hammer at him one more time, which he manages to dodge with ease.

But unlike before, the moment it hits the ground, the hammer breaks apart, creating a massive shockwave. Tons of small rocks shoot everywhere as the impact leaves a dust cloud in its wake.

"That should have done it," Iwa-Ni says. "That's what happens to those who are too confident for their own good."

But just as Iwa-Ni is about to deactivate his eye, Noreyu leaps out of the dust cloud, completely unharmed.

"Wha-!"

"Game over!" Noreyu shouts as he leaps over Iwa-Ni. "Shredding Wind - Finger Blades!"

With no chance to dodge, the full force of the Shredding Wind hits Iwa-Ni's face. As pieces of skin fly off and blood spurts from his eyes, he screams in pain, the damage too great for him to handle. With a large thud, he falls to the ground.

Noreyu lands just a meter past him and turns to the body on the ground. He dusts off his hands, not a single scrape visible on his body.

"Not so stern anymore, Mr. Iwa-Ni? Or should I say, Iwa-Ichi?"

Coughing up blood, Iwa-Ni attempts to speak, but fails. The skin on his face is largely missing, it would be a miracle if he survived. A lake of blood forms under his head.

"Don't be angry," Noreyu comments, looking down on the dying man. "If it went your way, I'd be in your position right now. You asked for this."

"You-" Iwa-Ni coughs out, followed by a stream of blood. "regret... this..."

"What, are you gonna come back for revenge? Or do you-"

Suddenly, Noreyu's confident expression disappears. Until just now, he only thought about the enemy in front of him. The sudden attack wasn't all that surprising to him, not the first time a criminal attacked him seeking revenge. But something is different. This attack felt planned.

"You!" Noreyu yells at the man on the ground. "Do you have allies around here?"

Knowing he won't get a response, Noreyu turns away and looks up the hill behind him. He leaps into the air, cloaking himself in wind to dash up the hillside. He lands on a small protruding rock, from which he leaps up and dashes again.

I was right.

He jumps off another rock, the houses on top of the hill coming into sight as he gets higher.

We were being watched yesterday... This is why. For some reason, someone's after us. All of us.

In the crown of a tree, down in the forest below, two people are sitting on a branch.

"S... scary..." one of them says.

"Hey, uhh..." the other whispers. "Let's... Let's delay this entire revenge thing, Goro... Alright?"

"Y... Yeah," the first responds. "Yeah, that would be better."

___________

Insight: Energy Veins

Running parallel to the normal veins that distribute blood, Energy Veins distribute energy produced by the Demon Eye across the body. They form within the first month of someone having a Demon Eye to ease the strain put on the body by the energy traveling to the emitting points. If a vein is cut, it will regrow eventually, but this takes a while.

___________

Lightning crashes through the windows of a gray building in the modern district of Kawazumi. Shards of glass fly through the streets, people run away in panic. In one of the apartments, a yellow lightning bolt shoots directly through the window and into the hallway, aiming at a middle-aged couple.

Before it can hit, a wall of water rises from the ground, catching the lightning. A surge of electricity shoots through the liquid and the wall collapses just as quickly as it came. As the water falls, it reveals Hirisu, with their Demon Eye active.

"To the basement!" they shout. "Go!"

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The woman of the couple tries to take Hirisu's hand, but they pull away. She has the same dark blue hair color as them.

"Just go, please!" Hirisu urges, looking at their parents with concern. "I can... I'll take care of this!"

"Hirisu, you can't!" their mother responds. "Come with us!"

Hirisu looks at their mother, their eyes pleading for her to go. But despite their conviction, they don't know what to say.

"Let them go, honey," Hirisu's father suddenly interjects. "Hirisu has a Demon Eye now, you know? Have some faith in our child."

The mother seems like she's about to tear up, but still reluctantly goes along with her husband.

"I just... don't want people to..."

Hirisu doesn't hear the rest of the sentence, as they rush towards the window where lightning still pelts the building relentlessly. They look down from the shattered glass, carefully standing in between the shards on the floor. There's someone on the street, with a Demon Eye, who is throwing lightning bolts like a maniac.

The person, seemingly a man, has an asymmetrical undercut hairstyle, with a long sweep of hair to the left. Said hair is dyed a neon pink color, standing out on his otherwise shaven head with only black stubbles of hair visible on the scalp.

Jagged tattoos run from his palm along the undersides of his fingers, which are hard to see with all the lightning sparks around his hands. There are two black lines under his eyes.

He has a wide grin and lowered brows, laughing as he shoots lightning bolt after lightning bolt all over the house.

"Who is he?" Hirisu thinks, trying to catch a glimpse of the man's Demon Eye. As expected, it's a yellow Electric eye, with two jagged black markings at the top, two at the bottom, and a spike in the middle, only on the bottom half.

Suddenly, his assault of lightning stops, as he notices Hirisu. He turns his head to face them.

"Hey there, fish-hair!" he shouts. A sharp pain shoots through Hirisu's self-esteem. The insult stings more than the glass shards slowly making their way through their socks into the skin on their feet. Hirisu takes a strand of their dark blue hair into their hand.

"Just because it's blue...?" they say to themselves quietly, presumably moments away from melting into a pile of sad, lonely, fish-colored sludge.

"Wait!" Hirisu suddenly shouts, snapping out of their melting state. "Who are you?! What are you-"

Hirisu stops themselves as they notice that the pink-haired man is looking right at them. For a moment, they forgot about their situation, but the piercing glare of the Electric eye brings them right back into it. They're already sweating.

"You're Hirisu, aren't you?" the man shouts at them. "Look, you're right here!"

He holds up a piece of paper with five crudely-drawn faces on it. They look like a three-year old drew them. But one of the faces matches Hirisu's almost exactly, aside from the part where someone scribbled a fish over it with a blue pencil, using their hair as its tail fin.

"Wh- Where did you get that?" Hirisu stammers, looking at the drawing in disbelief. From their distance, they unfortunately can't make out the fish.

"Kuro- uh, a certain mysterious assassin gave it to me!" the man shouts back. "Said I was supposed to eliminate this one."

He takes a bite from his fingertip, making it bleed a little. He then runs his finger over the drawing of Hirisu twice, creating an X.

"See? Just like that!"

Before Hirisu can process this information, a lightning bolt flies at them. Instinctively, they move their hand to the ground to raise a water wall, which barely blocks the lightning. The electricity inside grazes their hand, but they ignore it. Their Demon Eye glows brightly.

"You've got fight in you!" the man shouts up at them. "Well then, let's have a real duel! Come on down!"

"A... duel?" Hirisu repeats, confused.

"It wasn't an offer," the man says, his tone suddenly serious. "Come down, or I'll kill you up there."

"I..." Hirisu stammers. "O... okay."

Hirisu disappears into the house, running through the destroyed hallways of their own home. "What is happening?!" they say to themselves as sweat drips down their face. "Why does he have that... that drawing?" They put on a pair of shoes and sprint down the staircase.

A minute later, they come back out through the main entrance.

"Nice, nice! I like you, Hirisu!" The man walks up to them, coming uncomfortably close, so that their pink hair grazes Hirisu's face. They flinch a little, but don't dare to move away. "You need a name for me, right? I bet you've just been calling me 'incredibly cool lightning guy' in your mind so far!"

The incredibly cool lightning guy takes a step away from Hirisu, then turns to walk onto the open street. "Call me Rai-Ni. My folks and I don't have real names, so that's the best you're gonna get."

Hirisu looks at Rai-Ni with a serious, determined expression. Despite the doubt in their mind, they know what they must do. Win this duel and regroup with their friends.

Rai-Ni turns and throws three small bolts at Hirisu, who blocks with a Wave Wall. It collapses after the first one hits it, leaving them open to the other two. They just barely dodge one of them, while the other grazes their right shoulder.

Hirisu clenches their teeth and forces Water energy out of their hand, which quickly turns into a compact bubble of water. They throw it at Rai-Ni, but he simply cocks his head to the side. The water rushes past.

"That all you got?" he shouts. "Guess I'm not getting a fight."

Electricity crackles around his fist as he channels energy into it. With a quick leap off the ground, he rushes at Hirisu, yellow energy sparking in the air as he runs. "Meet my Bolt-Charged Fist!" he shouts.

Hirisu barely has time to react as Rai-Ni's electric fist rushes towards their face. They are launched away, crashing into the wall of the apartment building. They land in a pile of glass, the shards piercing their vulnerable legs.

Quickly, they try to push themselves to their feet, but Rai-Ni is already attacking again, dashing at Hirisu at high speed.

He's way faster than me!

Rai-Ni rushes past Hirisu, but the lingering electric energy stuns them, leaving them open to attack. He turns and runs at them again, this time aiming directly for their stomach with another Bolt-Charged Fist.

Just barely, Hirisu can create a Wave Wall to block. The fist crashes into the water, coming to a stop. From the point of impact, a spark of energy shoots up into the air. The yellow spark comes to a stop in mid-air, about two meters above Hirisu. Then, its form changes, from a ball of concentrated energy into a lightning bolt that shoots back down to where it came from.

The lightning crashes into the ground, just barely missing Hirisu by a few centimeters. The energy grazes their face, leaving a small wound on their nose.

"What was that?!" they shout out in surprise. Rai-Ni, who stands directly in front of them, grins.

"Bolt-Charged Fist," he says, repeating the name of his attack. "Wherever the attack lands, a lightning bolt strikes. You were lucky I hit that wall of yours."

He glares at Hirisu with his Demon Eye, his energy meeting theirs. Hirisu's eye, glowing in a deep blue, reflects the yellow of Rai-Ni's back at him. Meanwhile, not a hint of blue reflects in Rai-Ni's eye.

Rai-Ni breaks the staredown with a sudden Bolt-Charged Fist, which Hirisu just barely dodges by jumping backwards. Imitating how Noreyu always does it, Hirisu pushes energy from their hands to their legs, which they use to quickly boost away.

"Alright, Hirisu," they whisper to themselves. "Calm down and think."

Sweat runs down their face as they look at Rai-Ni from about ten meters away. He's still grinning, and channelling energy in both hands again.

He's trying to throw his lightning bolts. One of them isn't a big problem if I block, but they break my defenses quickly. I can't keep up a wall with electricity inside.

Three bolts shoot at Hirisu, which they attempt to block again. They try to put up a second wall after the first one breaks to the first bolt, but the second and third bolts are too fast and hit them.

The bigger problem is that Bolt-Charged Fist. Even if I block, the lightning strike comes from above. I was lucky that my wall was just barely far enough away. But that's not a reliable strategy.

Rai-Ni rushes at Hirisu after breaking the walls with the bolts. His fist is charged up again, and he's about to attack.

I have to dodge!

Hirisu dashes to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike. Rai-Ni's fist hits nothing, but he quickly turns in the direction Hirisu dodged. When he sees them, his eyes suddenly widen.

While still in mid-air, Hirisu has created a large mass of Water energy, which they shoot at Rai-Ni in the form of a wave. In the split second after noticing the attack, Rai-Ni has no time to dodge. It crashes down on him, knocking him off his feet. He lands on the hard asphalt below.

"You... You've got some fight in you after all!" Rai-Ni yells, his tone a mixture of excitement and anger.

From the ground, Rai-Ni launches another bolt at Hirisu while they're still in the air. They try to form a Wave Wall, but it doesn't reach in time as the bolt hits their center directly. Despite the shock coursing through their body, they manage to stay on their feet when they land.

I need to catch those bolts before they can reach me. But... how?

A bolt rushes past their face like a bullet, their eyes naturally locked onto its path. From this close, the lightning almost looks beautiful, the small patterns in its energy like those in their own.

In that moment, their whole body tenses up. Their previously shaky stance steadies, their feet now glued to the ground. Four strings of water emerge from their hands, two on each palm. They pull the strings towards one central point which they extend towards.

Where the strings converge, a bubble forms. It's small, smaller than the bubbles Hirisu uses for Aqua Focus Burst. Usually, they pump the bubbles full of water until they burst. But that is only one way to apply this technique. In this case, the bubble itself is enough.

The strings snap off its surface, leaving it floating in the air. Directly on the path of the next incoming lightning bolt.

The lightning pierces into the tiny bubble, forcing itself through the water to emerge on the other side. But the bubble traps the electricity inside. Before it can even travel another meter, the bolt is already out of energy and disappears into thin air.

"Using an Aqua Focus Burst to block... would be a waste," Hirisu says, their eyes focused on the strings in front of them, and on Rai-Ni further away. "A tiny bubble is enough. An... Aqua Focus Bubble!"

Rai-Ni finally jumps off the ground, looking at Hirisu's strings in surprise. "You had a power like that? Why didn't you use it before?"

"Because I only just figured it out."

Rai-Ni's left leg moves away from his right as he gets into a throwing stance. Energy still crackles around his hands, more intense than ever before.

"Barrage!" he shouts, throwing four bolts in a line along Hirisu's wingspan. They quickly pull the strings from left to right, creating four bubbles along the way that each catch a bolt out of the air.

At the same time as the bubbles trap the lightning, Hirisu retracts the strings to wrap around their fingers and dashes over the mid-air clash. Rai-Ni stares into the air, trying to track Hirisu's movement while his right fist charges up one more time. But he didn't expect Hirisu to move this quickly.

His fist strikes into the air, but hits nothing. The charge still remains as he turns to face Hirisu, who has dashed all the way over Rai-Ni's head. While they fall to the ground behind him, Rai-Ni thrusts his fist at them again. "You're wide open!"

The strings unravel from their fingers to form one more bubble, which the Bolt-Charged Fist simply pops as it breaks through. Rai-Ni's whole body shifts forward to hit Hirisu. But when he is about to land the attack, the charge in his fist is already gone.

Above the spot where the bubble popped, where Rai-Ni's upper body is now, a small spark of energy rises upwards. At its apex, it forms into a lightning bolt. Directly above Rai-Ni's head, it crashes down.

The electricity courses through Rai-Ni's head, sending his whole body into a violent spasm. His stretched-out arm retracts, drooping down as it keeps shaking from the shock. His legs give out, he drops to the ground, face-first into the asphalt.

His right arm lands on the drawing of Hirisu and their friends. One of his fingers, the one he bit into earlier, lands on Fumito's face, smearing a bit of blood on it. Seeing this, Hirisu comes to a sudden realization.

"Are there... others?"

Suddenly panicking again, Hirisu takes Rai-Ni's head into their hands, turning it upwards to force him to look at them.

"You! Rai-Ni!" Hirisu shouts. "Are there more assassins?!"

Rai-Ni coughs, clearly displeased at Hirisu's mistreatment of his vulnerable body.

"Didn't I tell you?" he says weakly. "Someone assigned me to eliminate you."

"So there are others assigned to eliminate everyone else?" Hirisu asks, still holding Rai-Ni's face. They are squishing his cheeks together in their panic, which he does not particularly enjoy.

Should I go find everyone else? But... if I just leave him here, he'll...

"You don't want to leave me unchecked, right?" Rai-Ni asks with a toothy grin. "Then why don't you just kill me?"

"K... kill you?" Hirisu stares at Rai-Ni in disbelief, finally letting go of his face. "I can't... kill."

"Then, would you rather let me live to kill your family while you're gone?" Rai-Ni continues, still grinning despite his pain. His chin now rests on the ground. "Or would you rather sit and do nothing while your friends die one by one?"

Hirisu goes silent. The thoughts in their mind are hazy, unfiltered. They don't know what to think.

"Or... how about you just abandon those morals of yours and kill me already?"