The west side of Kawazumi is where the rich live. Past Chisana Hill, a small district of luxurious estates stands in contrast to the architecture of the rest of the town. With its intricate light gray pavement, the large, complex buildings, and its numerous green spots, almost as many as there are houses, it gives off an air of nobility and opulence. Today, this lustrous district caught on fire.

When Noreyu and Hirisu arrive, standing on Chisana Hill as a vantage point, five, maybe six villas are already aflame. The fire brigade has been trying to extinguish the fire for a long time, but to no avail. The origin of the inferno lies at its center – a giant cloud of orange energy, larger than any building around, spawning flames in the air.

"That villa over there is Ishumai's," Noreyu says, pointing at the building behind the cloud. "Guess we had good reason to come."

"This cloud is pure energy, right?" Hirisu asks. "Is it from Ishuma's Demon Eye?"

Noreyu takes a close look at the cloud in the distance. "I can't make out the structure of the energy all that well. It seems like Fire energy, but there might be something else."

"Something else?" Hirisu repeats, trying to get a close look with their Demon Eye, too. "It looks like fire to me."

At the center of the cloud, Noreyu can just barely make out the silhouettes of two people locked in combat. "I suspect that Ishumai's opponent has a Wind eye."

Hirisu looks at Noreyu confused, but Noreyu quickly speaks up again. "Hold out your hand and emit some energy," he instructs Hirisu, who follows along. A small bubble of Water energy forms over Hirisu's palm.

Noreyu holds out his hand towards the bubble, releasing a small surge of Wind energy. As it drifts through the water, the teal energy takes on an indigo hue. The bubble disperses with the wind, but the Water energy is carried on through the air.

"Wind energy has a unique property – it's a potent carrier of other types of energy. Water, Electric, Fire... all of them can easily be carried by Wind."

Hirisu turns their gaze back to the cloud of Fire energy, burning not too far away from their vantage point. "So you think a Wind user did this?"

"Ishumai carelessly releases energy when he fights," Noreyu says, moving his hand away from Hirisu again. "His enemy is using that against him. If I were to fight him, this would be my strategy too."

Hirisu nods, confident thanks to their newfound understanding of the situation. Still watching the flames, the two notice how the breeze carries embers into the sky, threatening to spread the inferno even more.

"We should hurry up," Noreyu says with a frown. "If we let this get out of control, it could end up spreading to the rest of the town."

Sharing a resolute look, Noreyu and Hirisu leap down from the hill. Noreyu carries them both in a current of wind for a safe landing on the street parallel to the fire. They step over the intricate pavement made of stone bricks assorted in various patterns with little care, Noreyu's landing even breaking one of the stones out of the ground.

"Hirisu, I'm gonna need you to carve a path through the flames with your Demon Eye," Noreyu commands. "Once I reach the two, I'll split my eye between Wind and Fire so I can withstand the heat."

After taking a right turn, the cloud of flames comes into sight. The path is blocked by fire trucks.

"Does a Demon Eye give you resistance to its element?" Hirisu asks, trying to squeeze their way in between two trucks.

Noreyu jumps on one of them with a dash, bypassing the barricade altogether. "To an extent," he answers Hirisu. "You can breathe underwater, right? Demon Eyes have these little perks related to their elements. But it's not without limits. If you forget that, it can end badly."

The two reach the orange cloud, where Hirisu immediately gets to work. Forming a small wave of water, they manage to cut a small hole into the cloud.

"Go in!" Hirisu says to Noreyu. Both enter the small clearing as the energy already closes behind them, trapping the two inside.

The overbearing heat of the flames weighs on Hirisu, but they keep working, making a temporary tunnel through the cloud, to reach the silhouettes of Ishuma and his assassin fighting in the center. Noreyu has already activated his Fire eye, giving him resistance to the high temperatures. Even still, the pressure of the constant burning gets to him too.

When Hirisu's vision fails from the smoke and heat, Noreyu notices immediately and guides their water towards the silhouettes. Neither of them wants to speak in this environment, the pressure of the flames getting to even the resistant Noreyu. But even without words, they understand each other.

Finally, Hirisu breaks through into a small clearing at the center. In here, the Wind user is the one in control, the one who not only made the cloud but carved an arena for himself inside. He stares down Ishuma, who is relentlessly releasing more and more flames to attack. "As I suspected," Noreyu thinks, "he's adding fuel to the fire. Or, well, he's just adding fire."

"Hirisu," Noreyu whispers, "I'll take this battle. Once I break his control over the cloud – that's when you can extinguish it. Get Ishumai and get out of here."

Hirisu nods resolutely, even though their face is drenched in sweat and red like a tomato from the heat. They are using the tiny bit of water they can force themselves to produce from the dry air to cool themselves down. Even in the clearing, standing on the ground feels like stepping on magma.

"Ishumai!" Noreyu calls out, interrupting the duel. Both the assassin and Ishuma turn to him. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"What the hell are you doing, Noreyu?!" Ishuma shouts back. "Stay out of this, idiot! I'm perfectly fine!"

"You're setting the whole town on fire with the way you're fighting!" Noreyu shouts angrily. "Your house is on fire too!"

Suddenly, Ishuma's angry expression changes. As if struck by a sudden realization, he takes a step away from his opponent. Only now does he even notice the destroyed pavement below his feet. "My house..."

Hirisu waves to Ishuma, gesturing to join them. "T- This way!" they hesitantly shout out. "Follow me!"

Ishuma looks down to the ground, his vision through his glasses warped by the heat. He clenches his teeth. "Alright, I'll follow you, new kid!" he shouts, turning to run to Hirisu. But just then, the wind-using assassin rushes at him.

Before the hit can connect, Noreyu jumps in the way, blocking the assassin's fist with his arm.

"Go, Ishuma!" Noreyu shouts, prompting Ishuma to start running as quickly as possible to Hirisu's location while Noreyu stares down the assassin. His gritted teeth quickly form into a grin as he realizes his opponent's strength. Their expressions match each other now.

Once Ishuma is gone, Noreyu pulls away from the clash, scraping along the rough pavement as he is knocked back. He still grins at the assassin.

The assassin grins back at Noreyu, his Demon Eye glowing a bright teal, the same color as his spiky hair. A headband, with a pattern akin to that surrounding a Wind eye engraved, pushes his hair up, leaving most of his forehead exposed. The crest tattoo is clearly visible, as well as the two lines under his eyes. He is wearing mesh armor along his arms, from the wrist up to the shoulders.

"What's your rank?" Noreyu asks.

"That'd be Fū-San," the assassin responds. "And you're Noreyu, right? What's with your eye?"

"What do you mean?" Noreyu moves his hand to his Demon Eye, checking for injuries.

"You're a Wind user too, aren't you?" Fū-San continues, his grin making way for a genuinely confused expression. "So why's your eye a Fire one?"

"You can tell?" Noreyu asks. "Or, never mind. You've got intel, right?"

Fū-San laughs at that suggestion. "Intel? That just gives me an unfair advantage."

Noreyu smiles back at him. "You one of those honorable types?"

"Nah, I just like a good fight," Fū-San corrects. "Now, can I have an answer? About your eye."

"If you must know..." Noreyu begins as he puts his hand over his Demon Eye dramatically. As he reveals it again, it is split vertically between orange and teal.

"Dual Eye!" Fū-San immediately calls out excitedly. "No shot! You've got a Dual Eye? At your age?"

"That's not all," Noreyu responds with a proud smile. "My eye has all twelve elements."

Suddenly, Fū-San stops. His confident grin falters immediately. "You... You..." he stutters, struggling to find the right words. "No way..."

"So that explains... why we're hunting you guys."

"What?" Noreyu immediately asks. His expression turns serious too. "What explains that? What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Fū-San interrupts. "Now I know for sure. I wanna fight you right now!"

He stretches out his arms to his sides, channeling energy into his hands. Just now, Noreyu notices a tattoo on each hand, the shape of a sawblade.

The streams of teal gather on the back of his hands, forming into flat, spinning cylinders with spikes on the outside. They are the same shape as his tattoos.

"Weapon Art – Soarblades!"

Noreyu doesn't give the technique a second glance, instead holding out his right hand behind him, each finger stretched towards Fū-San. Wind energy flows into them, releasing at the tips.

"Shredding Wind!"

Fū-San grins as he sees the technique. "This is gonna be fun!" he shouts out, rushing towards Noreyu. He holds the spinning blade towards Noreyu as he aims for the first hit – a sideways chop with his right aimed for Noreyu's center.

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But Noreyu doesn't try to block, the threat of the Soarblade evident. Instead, he disperses Shredding Wind and leaps past Fū-San, leaving his attack to go nowhere.

"You're already exhausted, aren't you?" Noreyu asks mockingly. "Did Ishumai give you that much trouble?"

"I thought the boy was named Ishuma!" Fū-San responds, avoiding the question.

Suddenly, as he turns around, one of Fū-San's Soarblades, the one from his right, dislodges from his hand with a small clicking sound and shoots at Noreyu, who just barely dodges the deadly projectile. The sound of the sawblade cutting through the air rushes past him, only for the blade to change trajectory at the edge of the clearing and fly back like a boomerang.

Sensing the energy, Noreyu leaps over the blade with a backflip, starting his first counterattack by kicking off the ground with a dash the moment he lands. Shredding Wind in hand, he aims for Fū-San's back.

Fū-San however leaps forward too, dashing away from Noreyu. He quickly turns in mid-air, launching both Soarblades at high speed. Noreyu, too close to the edge of the cloud to safely dodge, forms Shredding Wind on both hands to simultaneously knock away the two blades. They return to Fū-San's hands.

"Tell me again why I can't just run through!" Ishuma shouts to Hirisu, who is making a path through the cloud for the second time now. Their lungs are burning as they breathe, their skin drenched in sweat. Meanwhile, Ishuma looks fine aside from a few cuts.

"You'll get burned!" Hirisu shouts back, coughing immediately after raising their voice. "We're... almost there!"

"Then hurry it up!" Ishuma shouts again. "I need to get out of here immediately, new kid!"

Hirisu tries to respond, but the words get stuck in their throat.

Noreyu leaps over a Soarblade's trajectory as he approaches his opponent. He throws a Wind Knife to close the distance, then jumps in for a punch, which hits Fū-San. Clenching his teeth but keeping up his grin, Fū-San tries for a left hook to Noreyu's face, which he dodges as he pulls his arm back. Predicting an attack, Fū-San ducks down and aims a sweeping kick at Noreyu's legs. Noreyu jumps over it, using his own leg to kick at Fū-San's face, which he blocks with a Soarblade that just returned to him.

Noreyu's shoe is chopped open, but just barely, his foot is uninjured. One wrong movement and his foot would've been gone. He lands on the ground safely, staring down Fū-San.

"You're really passionate about this fight, huh?" he says with a smirk.

Fū-San smiles back excitedly. "If I can take out even a single one of you, I'm getting that promotion!"

"Promotion?" Noreyu asks with genuine curiosity. "Then, you'd be..."

"Fū-Shi!" Fū-San shouts out. "Has a nice ring to it, eh?"

Noreyu looks at him with a thinking expression. "Isn't there a mountain with that name?"

Fū-San rushes forward, aiming for another chop using his Soarblade. "That's Mt. Rushi, you idiot!"

"Oh yeah," Noreyu responds, dodging the blow to the side. "The Blue Mountain, right? Ever been?"

Noreyu leaps over Fū-San with a dash, to which Fū-San points his Soarblade upwards and launches it at the airborne Noreyu. "I'd like to go there one day," Fū-San answers. "But it's not my territory."

Noreyu dashes again, this time towards the ground. He crashes into the pavement, throwing pieces of debris at Fū-San. One slab of stone slams into his face with a loud crack, sending a sudden pain through his body. As it drops to the ground again, it reveals his injured nose.

"Not your territory? What do you mean?" Noreyu asks as he stands up. "Wasn't Mt. Rushi public?"

With blood running out of his nose, Fū-San responds. "It was, until a while back. That's when strange creatures started appearing."

"Interesting," Noreyu grins. "Might check it out in the future."

The flying blade returns to Fū-San's hand, coming to a stop instantly as it reaches his palm with a satisfying snap. He aims both Soarblades towards Noreyu.

"I've got a little bit of a special technique to show off!" Fū-San proudly exclaims. The Soarblades both click off his hands, when he suddenly creates a gust of wind inside the fire cloud. It blows the Fire energy into the clearing, creating a smokescreen-like barrier between Fū-San and Noreyu.

Noreyu jumps back startled, when he hears Fū-San's voice call out "Soarblade Volley!" He braces for the incoming attack, already gathering the energy necessary for a dash. Suddenly, both of the Soarblades break through the smokescreen and shoot at Noreyu. He dashes over them, watching them return to Fū-San as they always do.

"That's it?" Noreyu asks with a confident smirk. "Nice special technique, but I was expecting mo-"

His words are cut short when Fū-San dashes at him, landing a blow to his face. Noreyu flies backward, about to land on the pavement, when he suddenly sees the Soarblades still in the air.

"They never returned to him?"

Both blades rush directly at him as he's defenseless, aiming to cut into his sides, when he feels a sudden pulse in his Demon Eye. All of this time, he's kept the Fire eye active to protect himself from the heat. But while his Wind energy reserves are running low, the Fire eye, exposed to so much of its type of energy, has been accumulating power. And it tells Noreyu what to do.

"Fireball!" Noreyu shouts out, letting his Fire eye's energy accumulate into a ball of flames which he quickly shoots at Fū-San with a current, not using his hands at all as he falls. The Soarblades are mere inches away from him when the fireball hits Fū-San, startling him and making him trip away from Noreyu.

However, Noreyu's desperate attack hasn't kept him safe entirely. The Soarblades still slice into his sides, leaving bloody wounds as they pull away from him and back towards Fū-San. Noreyu clenches his teeth, trying to suppress the intense pain.

The blades rush past Fū-San on both sides and fly several meters behind him, about the same distance Fū-San is away from Noreyu. There, their trajectories overlap, and they fly back towards Fū-San.

"They're orbiting you," Noreyu calls out confidently. "Like the earth around the sun, the Soarblades are moving around your body in an elliptic orbit. That's what the Soarblade Volley is, right?"

The blades fly close to Noreyu, but he confidently stands his ground. By just a few centimeters, they undershoot and miss him.

"Impressive," Fū-San says. "Really good job, Noreyu. So that's why you were confident in counterattacking there."

"Yeah," Noreyu lies. He doesn't want to admit it, but the fireball he threw was entirely out of instinct.

Hirisu and Ishuma have reached the outside of the cloud, where the scene of the disastrous flames hits Ishuma for the first real time. His own home, his street, the houses of his neighbors, all of them ablaze because of his recklessness. The destruction that the men and women of the fire brigade are so desperately fighting feels overwhelmingly monstrous, like a natural disaster. And it's his own strength, his pride, that has caused all of this. Ishuma stands there, unable to move his body. Beside him, Hirisu already gets to work.

Following Hirisu's command, two firemen carry a water hose to them.

"Thanks!" they say to the two. "Steady the hose while I spray at the cloud!"

Using their Demon Eye, Hirisu mixes their energy into the stream of water that sprays out of the hose.

"Fumito said that if I put my own energy in, I can make waves in the water," Hirisu recalls in their mind. "Then, the same should be true for this. Though... I'm not all that good at remote control yet."

The stream of water sprays over the fire cloud, but it doesn't seem to make even a dent. The Wind energy coursing through the flames, created by Fū-San, interrupts any attempt at nullifying the Fire energy.

"Noreyu said that Water can be carried by Wind, too," Hirisu thinks. Despite the inferno around them, and despite their own exhaustion, they remain calm. "If I can push my energy into that cloud, I can force the wind to carry my Water energy."

Exercising a level of control above their usual abilities, Hirisu manages to push the water from the hose further into the cloud. Most of it evaporates in the heat, but the energy travels deep inside, and a distant blue spark shimmers through the sea of fire.

"More!" Hirisu calls out to the firemen. "We need more water!"

"Water can temporarily break through the cloud," Hirisu recalls. "If I can make a hole for the Water energy to exist in, even for just a second, the wind will pick it up. It has to!"

"Can you see the blue energy?" Hirisu asks the firemen with a loud voice. Their sense of urgency suppresses their usual anxiety, so they can confidently speak to the firefighters.

"I can!" one of the firemen at the front of another hose, separate from the one Hirisu is operating, responds. "Do I aim at it?"

"Yes!" Hirisu commands. "Everyone, aim the water at my energy!"

"You..." Ishuma suddenly interrupts. "New kid."

No response.

"Hirisu!" Ishuma calls out, angry. "Leave the damn cloud alone already! Focus on my house! You need to put out the fire!"

"We need to get rid of the cloud first!" Hirisu responds. They try to keep their cool, but Ishuma's demeanor is getting under their skin. "It's the source of the flames!"

Ishuma clenches his fists, furious and on the verge of panicking. There's a sense of desperation in his actions.

A hole breaks into the cloud where the blue energy is. All of the streams point into the hole, trying to force the Fire energy away. Despite the constant stream of water, the hole soon closes again. But it was enough. The Water energy travels with the fire in the wind. And the blue spot has already grown a little.

"More!" Hirisu shouts, once again sending energy through the hose in their hands. It pierces through the cloud, towards the flowing Water energy. And the blue spot grows even more.

"Listen to me, Hirisu!" Ishuma shouts, interrupting Hirisu's control. Their flow of energy falters a little.

"Can you just shut up?!" Hirisu shouts back. "I'm trying my hardest here, okay? This is a mess you've created!"

"You don't understand!" Ishuma screams, his anger boiling over to the point of tears. "My sister is in there!!"

Hirisu's grip on the hose drops. They stare at Ishuma, their anger reaching the same heights as Ishuma's. "You knew that... and even still, you..." they stutter, unable to find the words. Then, without thinking, they shout in pure anger. The thought of Ishuma's recklessness being what might kill his own sister is too much for them. "This is all your fault! You fucking idiot!"

"I don't fucking care!" Ishuma shouts back. "Just put out the damn flames already!"

"And what do you think I'm doing?!" Hirisu yells, their face distorted by anger. "You're the one who isn't doing shit! We're about to break through this cloud, and what did you do for it? Nothing!"

"Hirisu, sir!" one of the firemen suddenly shouts, interrupting Hirisu's outburst. "We've made a breakthrough! The energy around your water is gone!"

Hirisu snaps out of their anger, immediately taking hold of one of the hoses again. "Good work!" they shout to the team. "Aim at the sides of the cloud! I'm breaking through from the inside!"

"Damn you, damn it all!" Ishuma thinks, rushing towards the entrance of his home. The walls of fire block him off, but he takes control of them, making a path. Hirisu notices out of the corner of their eye, but there's no time to stop him. Right now, all of their energy is heading into the cloud.

The cloud of water inside the cloud of fire grows more and more with every bit of energy added. And slowly, it is destroying the energy around it. It infiltrates every part of the cloud, the water rushing through to extinguish the fire. Hirisu knows what to do. "Now!"

With a sudden splash, every single bit of Water energy is turned to pure water. Together with the streams from the hoses, the cloud breaks apart, the energy scattering into the air.

"Noreyu!" Hirisu shouts, spotting their friend inside. He is locked in combat with Fū-San, but turns to Hirisu nonetheless. "Ishuma went into the house!"

"That fucking idiot!" Noreyu immediately calls out, jumping away from Fū-San. He makes a split-second decision, to run away from the enemy.

"Hirisu, I'm going after Ishumai!" Noreyu says, running past Hirisu. "Can I leave this fight to you?"

Hirisu nods. Despite their dwindling energy levels, they are confident. Noreyu dashes after Ishuma, who has entered the house already. He steps over the shards of a broken planter pot that used to stand outside the door and enters the burning building.