A single road runs along the top of Chisana Hill. The houses up here are by no means luxurious, but most of the people living here are among the richer ones in the town. Of course, the richest of the rich live in the villa district further past the hill.

"We live up here, so we must be rich!" That's what Fumito thinks. In truth, both of his parents work hard for many hours a day to guarantee their son a comfortable, safe upbringing. Always balancing their own needs against Fumito's, there have been many times when one of their son's rather expensive wishes left them barely able to afford rent for the month.

However, neither of them would ever be able to deny Fumito a wish. No matter what, they think, he must not realize their situation.

The morning air is cool and breezy, and most of the town is still asleep. As Fumito leaves the house for school this morning, his father follows him outside, about to head to work. Fumito is up unusually early today, it's rare for him to see his father leave. He works in the capital city Kyoishin, an hour-long train ride away from Kawazumi.

"Bye, Dad!" Fumito shouts, sprinting off towards school. "See ya later!"

"See ya, Fumito!" his father shouts back, a cheerful smile on his face. "Don't blow up too many bridges today, alright?"

His father has the same orange hair color as Fumito, though his hair is a little shorter than his son's. His body is muscular, his frame broad. There are a few small injuries on his exposed arms.

"It wasn't me!" Fumito protests as he runs, even though he's already too far for his father to hear him.

He runs across the open field where he and Noreyu always duel, the place where they first met. The stairs leading to downtown Kawazumi come into view, partly obscured by the foliage of the surrounding trees and bushes.

But when he heads towards them, his movement comes to a sudden stop. His left foot is stuck in something. He turns his head to look down, to see a small purple puddle of a goo-like substance under his shoe.

"Ugh! I can't get out!" he thinks out loud as he tries to pull his foot out. He almost manages to pull away, when he suddenly feels a strange sensation on his leg. Something is holding onto him.

A hand.

His eyes widen as he watches the hand touch his bare skin. Some of the goo dripping off the hand flows onto him, shooting a strange sensation through his body as if he was being scratched by a thousand tiny claws. He flinches from the sudden pain, but he quickly focuses and finally manages to pull his leg away.

Following the hand, the rest of an arm emerges from the puddle, stretching towards the sky. Another arm quickly follows, then a head and a body escape the purple liquid. Fumito wipes off the residue from his leg while watching in shock as a fully grown human being emerges from such a tiny puddle.

The person who emerges is a woman of tall stature, with slim arms and legs. Tattoos of mauve-purple roses run up her left leg, while her asymmetrical black leggings fully cover her right leg.

Over them, she wears a black dress, barely knee-length, split into a small part at the front and a large part around the back. It reaches over her torso and connects to the fabric around her neck with three small straps. Said fabric is part of a mask that goes over her mouth and nose.

She has black hair, with most of it tied into a thick, curly ponytail. Her bangs are short and spiky, revealing just enough of her forehead for a crest-like tattoo between her eyes to be visible. She also has two lines tattooed under her eyes.

Her left eye is a Demon Eye, glowing in a color similar to that of her rose tattoos. The black patterns around are two curved horns facing outwards on top and several thick lines facing downwards like sludge hanging off a ceiling.

"W... Where did you come from?" Fumito asks, backing off a little. "How did you do that?"

The woman raises her right arm, which still has residue of the purple goo remaining. A smudge of blue pencil color is on her thumb. She points at Fumito.

"You're my target."

"T- Target?" Fumito stutters, taken by surprise. With what just happened, his mind is a little shaken, and he can't properly focus on the situation happening right before him. "You're here to..."

"Kill you," the woman finishes his sentence. Her body leans forward as she gets into a running stance. "Now die."

"W- Wait!" Fumito interrupts. "Who even are you?"

"My name... I don't have one. Call me by my rank, Doku-San."

Fumito swallows hard, trying to steady himself. "So, Doku-San," he says, closing both his eyes. He takes a deep breath. "You're here to kill me, right?"

Doku-San slides her mask down her face, revealing her mouth. She takes a deep breath too, exhaling audibly. "I'm here to drain the life from your body." She lets her mask snap over her nose again.

"Yeah, what you said," Fumito continues, his eyes still closed. His tense body calms down, his shoulders relax. "In that case..."

His right eye jolts open, flaring up with Fire energy. The black patterns form in an instant as his body shifts into a battle stance. "You'll have to beat me first!"

The battlefield goes silent, and all that can be heard is the chirping of a lone sparrow. A gust of wind blows through the trees.

"Weren't you going to do something?" Doku-San suddenly asks, breaking the silence. Her voice is monotone and serious. "You look like a lost kid. Or a crab."

"Why a crab?!" Fumito shouts.

"Hair color," Doku-San responds. "Anyways, you gonna make a move or what?"

"You told me to die and everything!" Fumito yells, less annoyed at the threat of death and more at the title of crab. "I thought you were gonna attack first!"

"I thought your brain gave up already," Doku-San retorts flatly. She seems uninterested in the crab in front of her. "Would've saved me some time."

"Hey!" Fumito continues shouting, but then he stops himself. Noticing the opportunity, he grins. "In that case, I'm gonna-"

He is interrupted by a blow to his stomach at the hands of Doku-San. With her right up in his face, he notices how much taller she is. But he can't focus on that now as the punch throws him away, though he stays firmly on the ground. He has to raise his defenses.

Doku-San immediately closes the gap she created, delivering three quick punches which Fumito just barely manages to block. He aims for a strike to her left, but she quickly pushes his arm out of the way, opening him for a direct hit.

Fumito is thrown away again by the force of Doku-San's blow. He tries to ready for another punch when he notices her jumping towards him. "A flying kick?"

Fumito ducks. He attempts an uppercut. Doku-San knocks his arm away as she lands behind him. But he expected this.

"Flame Fist!"

His fist, covered in fire, flies towards Doku-San. The flames swirl around his hand like a whirlpool. But Doku-San is quick to react, as she ducks down. Or so Fumito thought.

Right before his eyes, Doku-San disappears into the ground. Or rather, into-

"Another puddle?" Fumito shouts out. A puddle of purple goo has appeared where Doku-San stood.

Fumito tries to look down to inspect the puddle when his opponent suddenly leaps out of it, covered in goo. Doku-San soars through the air, leaping at least ten meters above the ground. While she flies, she turns to face Fumito, suddenly shooting three drops of the purple goo at Fumito like bullets.

Reacting barely in time, Fumito leaps out of the way of two of the drops, but the third one grazes his shoulder. The purple goo flows over his shirt, making contact with the exposed skin near his neck.

"Ew, that stuff again?" Fumito says as he turns his head to look at the goo. The scratching sensation hurts, but he manages to suppress the pain to focus on the battle. He reaches to wipe it off, but the goo starts to seep into his skin, making him hesitate. Before he knows it, all the goo has disappeared, and he comes face-to-face with Doku-San again as she slowly approaches him from the bushes.

"Fireball!" Fumito shouts, channeling energy into his hands. But much to his surprise, no fireball comes out. Not even the slightest hint of fire. His hands hurt.

"W- Wha-" The pupil in Fumito's Demon Eye, a bright orange before, turns a faded gray-brown.

Something's wrong here! My energy levels should still be high! But... I can't use my Demon Eye!

He scrambles to try and force out energy that doesn't even run through his veins. Doku-San gets closer, she draws a long, thin dagger from a pouch under her dress. A ray of sunlight bounces off the clean metal.

Panicking, Fumito lets out a strained grunt as he charges at Doku-San, landing two impactless blows to her stomach. She kicks him to the ground.

"This was quicker than I expected," Doku-San says dully. "Clean job."

Fumito lies on his stomach, chin planted into the ground. He can barely move, yet he tries to struggle regardless.

Am I gonna die here? Already? Am I really this weak?

Thoughts rush through Fumito's mind, each one hazier than the last. In the face of the approaching assassin, he can do nothing but lie in wait. But then, his eyes fall on his shoulder.

The poison is gone, right? I can't feel it anymore.

A small spark ignites in his eye.

Which means... My energy has restarted!

His Demon Eye flares up like the sun breaking through dark clouds. Through the swirl of flames, he can make out his target. Doku-San.

Fumito jumps up, charging at Doku-San. Fire ignites on his right arm as he starts running, startling his opponent. He holds the burning arm out in front of him as he crashes the full weight of his body into Doku-San. "Flame Tackle!"

Barely able to block with her own arms, Doku-San is pushed back by the impact of the attack. Fumito keeps running into her, pushing her along with her defending arms engulfed in flames. For the first time, Fumito can see panic in her eyes.

Finally, Fumito pulls his arm away, knocking Doku-San away with a large sweep. She quickly turns around to throw a gooey projectile on the ground, creating a puddle she can disappear into. Fumito stands not too far from the puddle, coughing and panting heavily as energy finally flows through his body again. He looks at the puddle intently.

I couldn't see it properly earlier, but she jumped to the other puddle, right? The first one she made, by the bushes.

Fumito takes a careful look around the battlefield.

There are four puddles she could jump to right now. The one by the bushes, the one she dodged my Flame Fist with, and two from the drops that missed me.

The dangerous ones are the ones behind me. The bushes are far enough away. So, the moment she jumps-

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Fumito tenses up, ready to spring into action. Then, like an erupting geyser, Doku-San shoots out of the puddle. Fumito doesn't hesitate.

I'll turn around!

And as he turns, another drop of poison hits his neck. His gamble didn't pay off – Doku-San lands in the bushes.

W- What?!

Reacting more quickly than the last time, Fumito tries to wipe the goo off his neck before the pain kicks in, but it sticks to his right hand instead.

How do I get rid of it? Can I burn it?

He closes his eyes, focusing on the energy inside of him. He can feel a numbing sensation rushing through his body from the spot on his neck.

There's still energy left in my right arm. If I can just create some heat...

A tiny flame burns up in the midst of the poisonous goo. Some of it has entered Fumito's body already, but the goo still outside flares up and burns away.

Noticing this, Doku-San rushes towards Fumito with her dagger drawn, but this time, Fumito has at least a little bit of energy left. As she hurls another toxic drop towards him, he throws out a fireball, which burns away the poison as the two projectiles clash. Fumito's Demon Eye is gray again, but there's a faint glow remaining.

"As long as I can outrun her, I can wait for my energy production to restart again," Fumito strategizes as he starts running. "I have a chance."

Doku-San rushes after him, throwing volleys of toxic drops at him as she runs. He dodges each and every one, but more puddles form around him. The next time she jumps, he won't even have a chance to predict her destination.

Sensing the energy return to him, Fumito takes a U-turn to run at Doku-San directly. His right arm flares up again. Doku-San chucks two more toxic drops, but they burn away before they even touch his skin.

"What did I call this attack earlier?" Fumito thinks aloud, at a volume Doku-San can clearly hear. "Flame Tackle? I don't like that name anymore. It's boring."

"What are you talking about, you idiot?" Doku-San says in response, raising her voice just a little for the first time. "You're in the middle of a-"

"Raging Ram!" Fumito shouts as he tackles Doku-San again. The flames dig into her already burned arms, drawing out blood. A smile forms on Fumito's face.

___________

Insight: Combined Techniques

When one person has access to multiple elements through their Demon Eye, they can use both elements at the same time. In most cases, this causes the Demon Eye's pupil to split between both element's colors. A vertical split indicates both elements being used separately, while a horizontal split indicates the elements being used together. In some rare cases, the two colors may even merge into one, forming a new type of Demon Eye altogether.

___________

The flames, burning like a wildfire, go out in an instant, as if all their oxygen was cut off. Fumito stops in shock, then suddenly drops to the ground. A blot of goo covers his left cheek. His arms give out completely, and so do his legs.

For Demon Eye users, there's a large difference between running low on energy and running out of it entirely. As long as a tiny bit of energy remains, they can produce more in just a few seconds. But once a Demon Eye runs out of energy, it turns off. And so does the supply of energy throughout the user's body. In other words, Fumito has fallen unconscious.

But despite that, his eyes open again. Devoid of energy, he stares at the woman who is about to be his killer.

"Do it... already," he coughs out. "Just know... you'll regret this. Noreyu-"

"Quiet," Doku-San interrupts, stomping her boot on his head. "I like my seafood silent."

She raises her arms, gripping the dagger with both hands. Fumito stares at the sharp point hovering above him. Suddenly, a tear flows from his eye.

"Please don't kill me!"

The dagger rushes down. The sound of the blade rushing through the air like a sudden gust of wind is all Fumito hears. Wind...

And then, the blade crashes against something. But it's not Fumito. It's her own leg. Teal energy courses through a wound on her arm. And then, a fist strikes her stomach, and she flies across the hill.

"That was way too close," Noreyu sighs. "You alright, Fumito?"

From the ground, Fumito looks up at his friend, tears in his eyes. His arms instinctively move to cling onto Noreyu's leg. "You saved me!" Fumito bawls. "Noreyu! You're so awesome!"

"I know, but first, what's the situation?" Noreyu responds. "What are those puddles?"

"They... they drain your energy," Fumito explains, recovering from his tearful outburst. "She shoots them as small drops. And... she can jump from one to another."

"Don't touch them, don't let her touch them," Noreyu summarizes. "Got it."

Doku-San rushes at Noreyu, aiming her dagger at him. It clashes with Noreyu's wind-covered fist.

"I don't believe we've been introduced?" Noreyu says through gritted teeth, grinning at the assassin.

"Doku-San," the assassin simply responds. "You're Noreyu, then."

"Ah, you're a rank above Iwa-Ni?" Noreyu asks. The two are still locked into a clash.

"What did you do with him?" Doku-San responds, her voice unwavering.

"Dunno. He wasn't breathing, I think."

Under her mask, Doku-San clenches her teeth. She finally breaks the clash, jumping away without removing her gaze from Noreyu. "I don't appreciate your attitude."

"Well, I don't appreciate your attempt on my friend's life," Noreyu responds. He rushes at Doku-San, charging wind around his legs.

Suddenly, as she tries to throw a toxic drop at him, Noreyu stomps the ground while still running, brown energy mixed into the impact. A large chunk of soil shoots up, a similar shape as Iwa-Ni's pillars. Along with the wind, he boosts into the air, flying over Doku-San's head.

Those puddles are no threat as long as I stay in the air. She's not fast enough to hit me with the bullets either. Also... I bet she's exhausted already.

Aiming for an early kill, Noreyu lands behind Doku-San, Shredding Wind in hand. Swift as ever, she dives into a puddle below her, and Noreyu's attack hits nothing. She bursts out of the puddle, Noreyu's eyes closely following her movement.

The moment he can tell the direction she is going, he starts to run that way too. "If I can catch her before she lands, I win!" he thinks out loud, following directly under Doku-San's leap. "Shredding Wind!"

But by the time the attack reaches the puddle, Doku-San has already landed inside the toxic liquid, leaving Noreyu to stumble towards the spot he aimed at. And then, like a bullet, Doku-San shoots out of the puddle again and hits the defenseless Noreyu with her whole body. While she soars into the air, Noreyu is thrown to the ground.

But he quickly gets back up and looks around for Doku-San, when a shout from Fumito interrupts his thoughts.

"Noreyu! You can burn off the poison!"

He hasn't even noticed the large spot of goo on his right arm. "It must've come from Doku-San's attack," Noreyu realizes. "But there's no time to switch to Fire right now!"

Desperate, Noreyu tries to use wind to blow off the sticky poison. The gust born of the remains of his energy sweeps through the liquid, dissolving it all in an instant. And Noreyu comes to a realization.

"It's not fire!" Noreyu shouts to Fumito. "The thing that destroys this poison is energy!"

"He's figured it out?" Doku-San quietly acknowledges as she steps out of a puddle. She stares at Fumito, lying on the ground near her.

"My mission is to kill my target," Doku-San thinks. "And if that Fumito joins the battle again, I'm in danger. Two of them is too much." She quickly dives back into the puddle, setting her sights on another one right behind Fumito. By the time Noreyu realizes her plan, he can't stop her jump anymore. So, he rushes to Fumito's side instead.

"I need to catch her before she can land," Noreyu thinks. "If I let her land, Fumito's in danger. She'll be able to sap the energy from him again."

He looks up at Doku-San, who has jumped high up into the air. Releasing a glow of brown energy, he stomps a chunk of the ground, which rises up about a meter. His brown Earth eye narrows.

"It's not high enough."

And then, a gust of wind blows across his face. A strand of his hair flies over his Demon Eye, covering it just briefly. And when it's revealed again, the pupil is no longer just brown. Vertically through the middle, it is split in color. One side brown, one side teal.

"Dual Eye!"

The top of the pillar Noreyu raised cracks off. Swirling teal energy gathers at the bottom of the removed chunk, pushing it upwards. Two meters, now three, four, five meters into the air. The tiny piece of earth that Noreyu stands on top of cuts directly into Doku-San's landing trajectory.

"No way..." Fumito thinks, staring at Noreyu in the air. "When did he learn to use two elements at once?"

He clenches his fist, grinning. "You bastard... Were you hiding it to use against me?!"

Doku-San plunges down towards Noreyu, her path set. Noreyu lets the Wind energy flow through his arm, forming a Shredding Wind. As he feels the sensation of the wind cutting the air around his skin, one he has grown quite familiar to already, he feels something else. An unusual sensation.

He looks on in horror as Doku-San's outstretched fist has reached him first. Slipping off the floating chunk, he plummets towards the ground, right towards the puddle he so desperately tried to keep Doku-San away from. He can't react anymore, there's no time for him to prevent landing right inside the poison.

Flames. A sudden burst of fire shakes Noreyu as he snaps out of his trance. He's not inside the puddle. His feet touch down on the ground next to Fumito, whose eye emits an orange glow. Doku-San is the only one to land inside the puddle as the two stand together, ready to bring this fight to a close.

"Wanna show her what we got?" Fumito asks with a large grin. And with a grin of equal size, Noreyu responds.

"Glad you're back, Fumito."

Their fists bump together, sending a wave of energy across the battlefield. Both of their hands light up.

"I'll give you some of my energy," Noreyu says, as Fumito can feel the wind swirl around his body. The energy gathers at his legs, shining in teal.

"Then you can have some of mine too!" Fumito responds, sending fire from his fist to Noreyu's right arm. Noreyu quickly switches his eye to Fire for just a moment to stabilize the raging energy.

"Let's go!"

On the signal, both of them leap off the ground. They're barely visible as they rush past Doku-San, one to her left and one to her right. Taking a wide curve, Noreyu and Fumito run to opposite flanks of Doku-San, trapping her in the center.

Noreyu makes the first move, throwing a volley of Wind Knives. Noticing the attack, Doku-San turns to him, only to see the Wind Knives rushing past her. "A diversion?"

Fumito's fist rushes towards her from her blind spot, but she manages to jump forward just a little to then turn at her opponent.

A left punch, she blocks, then a right punch. She dodges and readies a counter, predicting Fumito's left to rush at her. But fast like a jet stream, Noreyu leaps into the air from her right side to deliver a wind-infused kick to her face. Fumito and Noreyu exchange smiles as Doku-San is thrown away. She manages to stay on her feet and throw three toxic drops.

Noreyu gestures to Fumito to stay back, only to rush forward and take out the drops with a quick sweep of wind. Running past him is a fireball, aiming to distract Doku-San to let Noreyu land a blow. But instead, she dives into the ground, leaping across the battlefield. Noreyu pelts her path with Wind Knives, but she manages to fly past just before they can hit.

As she lands, Fumito is already there, locking her into a hand-to-hand exchange as Noreyu approaches. Noreyu lands a blow to her side, forcing her focus towards him only for Fumito to land another blow, and another, and another, and she finally manages to block both of them to give herself an opening.

"They're too in sync!" she thinks frantically, her breathing getting heavier inside the mask. As she pushes both her opponents away with a sudden burst of strength from her hands, she lets the tight mask slip down, revealing layers upon layers of sweat underneath.

"Hey, Fumito?" Noreyu asks. Both he and Fumito stand a little bit away from Doku-San, but both kept their footing after the burst. "Look at her face right now."

Doku-San's calm demeanor is all but gone. She's not just frustrated, her breathing gives it away – she's panicking.

"She's running low on energy, isn't she?" Fumito responds. "She almost looks pathetic."

The image of the once menacing Doku-San towering over him flashes through Fumito's mind. The fear he felt in that moment feels unreasonable now. Is this really the woman who brought him to the brink of death?

"Let's finish this fight," Noreyu says with a grin.

Fumito nods, his expression resolute. "Yeah!"

Barely able to even catch her breath, Doku-San has no choice but to flee with a quick launch when she sees the two approach again. She jumps to a puddle behind her, only putting some distance between her and her opponents while landing in the same direction as they're going. She shoots a sudden volley of toxic drops, two of which hit Fumito and Noreyu.

But they're prepared. A quick burst of energy gets rid of the poison immediately, and they keep running. Having covered over half of the distance between them and Doku-San now, they split up one more time, Noreyu running to the right and Fumito to the left.

"This again?" Doku-San shouts out. "That won't work!"

Before she can try to disappear into a puddle, a fireball shoots towards her. Fumito stares at her with a grin as she barely dodges the fireball, already turning to Noreyu who she presumes right next to her. But he's a safe distance away, letting the energy in his arm burn bright. From his hand, a fireball emerges to shoot at Doku-San. And when she tries to dodge, Fumito is right there.

"I let them get too close again!"

And much to her surprise, Fumito doesn't attack. Rather, the wind channelled around his feet launches him into the air, covering him in teal energy. He leaps over her head as Noreyu approaches from the front. Barely, she can block a blow from Noreyu right as Fumito lands behind. Noreyu jumps away.

"Flame Pillar – Prison!" Fumito shouts out, planting his hand into the ground to push up three pillars as the teal energy around him disperses. Doku-San stares at him in anger, trying to punch him, but the flames from the pillars char her fist.

Seeing Noreyu approach again, she quickly dives into a puddle on the ground, escaping upwards. But before she can, he leaps up to catch her out of the air, throwing her into the dirt.

She tries to get up again, but Noreyu rushes at her with Shredding Wind in hand. The remains of the Fire energy gather around the wind, mixing into it. The teal energy turns orange as Noreyu pulls his hand behind himself to attack.

In a swift move, Fumito hits her side, preventing any chance at escape. "No!" she coughs out, staring into the determined eyes of Noreyu before her. He thrusts his arm towards her, fingers stretched out.

And she can't do anything. The blazing Shredding Wind chops up the fabric of Doku-San's dress, the energy surging uncontrollably into her body. Thousands of tiny cuts chop her skin to pieces and flames burn open her blood vessels as her torso is obliterated by the attack. And just like that, as Noreyu releases the attack, she drops to the ground.