Chapter 3 — The Law of Fangs
(Lui Shirosagi's Perspective)
Strength was not something you debated.
Strength was something you proved.
That was the first truth Lui Shirosagi learned—and the only one that mattered.
Lui stood at the edge of the stadium long after the crowd had left, crimson hair unmoving as the wind curled around him like a loyal beast. Ryoma stood a few steps behind, silent as always, his presence steady and unquestioning.
In the center of the arena lay fragments of plastic and metal.
What remained of Ryuuga's Bey.
Lui stared at them with detached interest.
"So fragile," he said calmly. "That's what happens when you rely on faith instead of fangs."
Ryoma didn't respond.
He never needed to.
Ryuuga had been loud.
Not with his mouth—but with his existence.
The way he launched.The way he pushed.The way he trusted his Bey even as it screamed beneath the pressure.
It disgusted Lui.
And yet—
That same reckless refusal to yield had caught his attention from the very first battle.
Ryuuga didn't bend.Didn't calculate losses.Didn't retreat.
He fought as if defeat simply didn't exist.
Idiot, Lui thought.
But when Ryuuga's Bey shattered under Longinus's strike, something unexpected happened.
The stadium roared.
And Lui felt… disappointed.
Not because it was difficult.
But because it was over.
"You could have gone further," Lui said softly, more to himself than anyone else. "If you had abandoned that blind trust… if you had embraced domination…"
For a moment—just a moment—Lui wondered what Ryuuga might have become.
Then he turned away.
The weak did not deserve hypotheticals.
Shu Kurenai was different.
And far worse.
Shu didn't fight with belief.He didn't fight with hunger.
He fought with restraint.
Perfect launches.Calculated movements.A Bey that responded like an extension of his mind.
Spriggan was a masterpiece of balance.
And that was exactly why Lui despised it.
"Balance is cowardice," Lui said once, watching Shu from afar. "It's what people cling to when they're afraid to choose."
Shu Kurenai chose nothing.
He observed.He adapted.He avoided excess.
And yet—his eyes never left the battlefield.
That was the part that bothered Lui the most.
Shu looked down on power, but he wanted it.
Lui could feel it.
The restraint wasn't humility—it was a cage.
And cages were meant to be broken.
Their rivalry wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
Every time Shu met Lui's gaze, there was tension—tight, compressed, ready to snap. Shu didn't challenge Lui openly, but he never yielded either.
That quiet defiance gnawed at Lui.
"Fight me properly," Lui thought. "Or shatter."
Either outcome would satisfy him.
In his mind, the lines were clear.
Lui Shirosagi: DominationAbsolute strength. Absolute rule. Longinus devouring all.
Shu Kurenai: RestraintEndless control, waiting for the moment it would inevitably fail.
And Ryuuga—
Ryuuga was the anomaly.
Broken. Silent. Gone from the stage.
But not erased.
Somewhere in the back of Lui's mind, a thought lingered like a thorn:
If he returns… what will he choose?
Would Ryuuga crawl back clinging to faith and trust, only to be crushed again?
Would he abandon himself and seek control, becoming another restrained shadow like Shu?
Or—
Would he forge something else entirely?
A path beyond domination and restraint.
A storm without chains.
Lui smiled.
"Good," he said quietly. "That would be worth destroying."
Ryoma finally spoke. "You expect him to come back?"
Lui turned, eyes blazing.
"Of course," he said. "Storms don't die. They just disappear… until the sky is ready."
Far away, unseen by all of them, something ancient began to spin.
Three paths were set.
Shu, tightening his restraint until it would inevitably shatter.
Lui, rising ever higher, convinced nothing could touch him.
Ryuuga, standing at the crossroads of rebirth.
When they met again, the world of Beyblade would not survive unchanged.
And one of them would become a legend.