Gilded Ashes-Chapter 57: Before the Flash

Rows of seats filled in a slow current - second-years near the rail, first-years craning their necks, even a few third-years near the back, instructors speaking low beside clipboards. The floor had been polished by rushing boots.

Kori stood at the sideline with her arms folded.

Across from her, a tall man in a black instructor’s jacket rested one hand on a tower shield propped beside his bench. The shield was almost as tall as Kori and more than three times her width. His hair was white, ahd he had iron-gray eyes that moved across the arena like they’d already seen the ending.

"Sixth Phalanx" someone whispered behind Raizen. "Osamu."

Osamu didn’t waste a breath on the crowd. He looked at his four second-year opponents in the opposite tunnel - Keita with his twin luminite fans tucked close, Oren steady behind a shield as tall as his body, Ryuu rolling his mechanical wrists in unnatural angles with soft mechanical clicks, Iris checking the threads of green light humming between her fingers. Then he looked at Kori.

"You’re seriously letting your first-years fight my students?" His voice was perfectly even. "With more than half the experience?"

He didn’t ask that on a mocking tone. It sounded almost like he was genuienly confused, and didn’t want anything to go south.

Kori’s jaw tightened once. Then she forced a grin, and lightly nudged his side. "Let the best win, Osamu. They’re full of surprises. At least, these little disasters surprise me every day!"

"Surprises, huh..." Osamu mumbled. "Then we shall see. Which side has the bigger surprises."

A deep horn cut the murmur. The scoreboard lines went from gray to white. It didn’t matter. A light went green over each tunnel.

Arashi leaned so Raizen could barely hear him "Remember Kori’s sermon. Clean, controlled, perfect."

"Controlled wins" Ichiro mumbled back.

Keahi rolled her shoulders. "Then I’m about to be the most controlled flame in history."

They stepped into the light.

Raizen. Hikari. Keahi. Ichiro.

The far tunnel answered at the same time.

Keita. Oren. Ryuu. Iris.

The noise from the sides rose, then collapsed into a disciplined hush. A clipped voice fell from overhead.

"Duel parameters - four on four. First team to incapacitate or force withdrawal of the opposing team. No lethal intent. Instructors may intervene for safety. Begin on tone."

After a few seconds of silence, a single tone rang through the arena.

The second-years didn’t form a line. They didn’t bow.

They just ran. As fast as they could.

Keita snapped both fans open and the air around him came alive. Just as Raizen predicted. A hard slant of wind swept the dust from the far corner and boosted him forward. Oren pushed forward with his shield tight to his chest, as if it didn’t even weigh that much. Ryuu shifted his motors - not supernaturally fast, but efficient, every movement stripped down to its purpose. His extra joints really helped him here. Iris raised one hand, touched her staff and green light started gathering between her fingers.

Oren went straight for Keahi. She read it, planted her feet, and sent flame low to test his shield’s edge.

The shield didn’t block the flame. It swallowed it. The fire folded against the surface and vanished.

Keahi’s eyes widened. "That’s n-"

Ryuu came past Oren’s shoulder before she could even finish. His mechanical ankles locked against the floor and he closed the distance in two steps - no windup, no warning. Just a short, brutal punch driven straight into her ribs.

The sound it made was brutal. Keahi folded around the punch, left her feet, flew a few meters straight and only stopped when she hit the far wall back-first. The impact literally cracked stone. Dust shook loose in a ring. She slid down and didn’t move. A red thread appeared at the corner of her mouth.

The crowd exhaled as one.

"She’s out" Kori called, looking slightly surprised, already moving toward her.

That fast. Ten seconds in and they were already down to three.

Raizen tried to close the distance on Keita. He dashed quickly, trying to get into a blind spot. Keita smiled with all his teeth and flicked one fan upward. Wind caught Raizen’s dash sideways and bent it. He slid wide, corrected, slashed back in - and Keita sent another curl that turned Raizen’s straight lines into nothing useful. Every angle Raizen found, the fan made it a curve.

Ichiro didn’t need to be told. He dropped both hands to the floor and the ground answered.

Pillars rose - not the careful ribs they’d used in practice, but massive arcs of stone that reached toward the cloudy sky. A platform climbed under his feet and carried him up. He ran the spine of it and sent a slab off the edge - ripped straight from the wall.

Ryuu took it in the chest. He hit the floor hard, and the floor hit him back - Ichiro turned the stone under him into a fist that drove him upward again. Ryuu didn’t scream. He caught a pillar with his ankle, spun around it, and landed. Ichiro bent the ground beneath him into a slope and sent him sliding into another one of his pillars. When Ryuu fought to scramble up, the stone went slick. When he dug in with metal fingers, the stone felt harder than the metal.

"Hmm" Ichiro mumbled, like that was the only thing he needed to say.

Then Keita suddenly pivoted. Both fans swung and wind gusts left his wrists in heavy currents that hit Ichiro’s platform from two directions. The whole slab tilted. Ichiro rode it down with one knee braced and caught himself with a quick ledge -

And everything went bright.

Iris had chosen her perfect moment. The green light in her hands swelled to the size of a barrel and she fired it into the base of Ichiro’s platform. The blast ate through stone and sent Ichiro flying backwards. He hit the rail sideways. Something snapped inside of Ichiro’s body with a sound the crowd didn’t want to hear.

Kori stood completely still, eyes sharper now. "Ichiro - out."

Two down. In under a minute.

Osamu was already at Keahi’s side, one hand on her sternum, the other steady on her shoulder. Light ran from his palm – always changing color: grey to green to white to clear. Keahi’s eyes snapped open, and she coughed blood for a couple of times. She looked at the arena floor like she could rejoin through sheer will alone. Osamu said something short and she stayed seated, with lowered shoulders because the rules were the rules.

From the stands, Arashi’s voice came soft. "Two down. What is even happening?"

Hikari didn’t wait. She broke forward and went straight for Iris - the healer, the one keeping all of them in the fight. She didn’t bother using her lines or Eon. In two quick steps, she was already in front of Iris. Then, with a fabulous spin, her staff’s sharp end cut through the green light and the tip found Iris’s elbow.

The cut was clean. Iris’s hand came away from her arm and hit the floor with a wet sound.

Someone in the third row swore in a loud voice that forgot it was in public.

Iris looked down at the stump. She grunted once, swallowing her scream. She threw her staff towards Hikari, buying herself a few seconds of time. In this silver of time, she quickly bent down and pressed the severed hand on the ground to the live hand, and green light started stitching the two - threading through skin and muscle and pulling them back together. Her fingers twitched. She flexed them once, tested the grip, and nodded to herself like she was checking homework.

Then, turning back towards Hikari, she threw a net. A few of them, actually.

Eon woven into pale green hexagons - it opened wide and fell toward Hikari in layers. Hikari slashed one edge free. Cut a second line. A third tangled her ankle and she carved through it. A fourth and fifth fell together and she rolled, sliced, dodged, sliced - and she would have gotten clear if Oren hadn’t been right behind her.

He came in one step. Set his weight. And hit the back of her head with the full face of the shield.

Hikari hit the floor once, bounced, and hit the rail. Before she could move, Ryuu was already there - a short, precise strike to her shoulder that cracked something that shouldn’t crack. Hikari’s spear clattered out of her hand.

Kori and Osamu arrived at the same time. After Kori confirmed that Hikari was out, Osamu took her non-broken arm, careful and steady.

Kori’s eyes cut to Raizen for one second - then away.

"Three down" Kori whispered. But she whispered to herself now, as if nobody else was supposed to hear.

"Oh, Raizen... I wonder what you are gonna do now."

Raizen stood alone in the center of the arena.

Keita’s laugh rolled across the floor. Not loud. Not performative. Just a long, bright sound - the kind of laugh that came from someone who was enjoying havoc way too much.

He twirled one fan lazily and walked forward. His pupils were wide. His grin was too alive, too eager, darting between Raizen and the crowd like he couldn’t decide who deserved the show more.

"This..." Keita started, and his voice cut across the entire arena, "This is everything you’ve got!?"

Then he turned towards the stand. "See, this is what nobody tells first-years. You can train every day, believe in each other, fight with your whole heart -" His grin split wider. "- and it still won’t matter."

Oren set his shield down with a thud. Ryuu rolled his shoulders, mechanical tendons clicking softly.

Three of them, standing. Iris behind them, hand freshly healed, green light already building again.

Keita stopped walking towards Raizen.

"You challenged us to this" he shouted, loud enough for every seat in the arena. "And you didn’t even stand a chance!!"