AN - Criticism is greatly appreciated :-)
[Time skip - 4 months, tournament] - [POV 3rd] - [Semi-Finals] -
After four months of enduring the hardest training in any of his lives, Kazuhi stood in the tunnel and stood stiff, body buzzing for battle.
His training offered massive results stamina increasing distinguishably, body becoming leaner aswell as lighter and most of all, practice with his cursed energy.
his body was now permanently warm with cursed energy...
----------------------
'The semi-finals were five minutes away. One fight left before the final-'
He was interrupted by the intercom blaring
"THE SEMI-FINALS ARE BEGINNING IN 5 MINUTES, PARTICIPANTS GET READY!"
'Wouldn't be too mad if i lost in the semi-finals, but i'm aiming for higher-for number 1 just to spite that bastard-after all that's why ive trained so hard, right?'
With that declaration, he walked out to the edge of the tunnel and started stretching, getting ready for the intercoms to sound out again.
"PARTICIPANTS, GET READY TO MOVE TO THE FIELD WHEN I CALL YOUR NAME!"
Kazuhi's ears perked up at that and he stood at the exit, waiting for his name to be called.
"KAZUHI ZENIN, STEP UP!"
'Me first, huh..'
Kazuhi started walking out of the tunnel towards the field. He could hear shouting and cheering of his name from his fellow Akashi members and friends.
'Forgot that a majority of the Zenin clan watches this for leisure.'
As Kazuhi thought that, he locked eyes with Naohiro, who was standing in an upper stand with the other higher up's of the clan even including the head of the clan. They both held said stare with some grit for a few seconds before sharply breaking it collectively.
his jaw stayed clenched almost menacingly, eyes piercing the ground
'fuck him, needed that wakeup call though'
While Kazuhi continued waiting for the intercom to blare out again, he kept stretching and started to get his cursed energy to whirl about his body, forming cursed energy reinforcement, which boosted his physical abilities and senses many times over, even at his amateur level.
'Ooh~ could never forget the feeling of cursed energy warming my body up for a fight. Feel empty without it.'
"UP NEXT... GENYA ZENIN!"
...
'Expected that, lucks always against me, isnt it'
'Atleast i have information on him, unlike the others i fought'
Quietly Kazuhi thoughtfully deliberated on how to defeat Genya, who knew many of his weaknesses and strengths due to their frequent sparring together.
--------- Genya --------
On the other hand Genya slowly walked towards the center of the field readying his mind for the fight
'Kazuhi hmm. I'm physically stronger than him but when he uses cursed energy reinforcement he has too much durability for me to deal with.'
'Guess ill have to use 'that' strategy'
Genya started copying Kazuhi and began stretching, waiting for the referee to start the countdown.
-------- Kazuhi -------
'Whatever, let's just do this. This cheering is making my ears bleed...' Kazuhi thought grumpily
The intercom blared one last time, cutting through the noise.
"EVERYONE, PAUSE YOUR CHEERING."
The noise immediately stopped and everyone started to look towards the referee.
The referee quickly looked up towards the organisers, who nodded. And as such, began his countdown.
"3!"
'As long as he fights as normal i can probably win-'
"2!"
'...probably'
Cursed energy started whirling into the hands of the two participants, both readying huge attacks for the countdowns end.
"1!"
Both participants were completely focused, ignoring everything beyond themselves and their opponent.
.....
"GO!"
...
As soon as it started they released their attacks simultaneously.
-SLAM!
Kazuhi's pure cursed energy beam slammed into Genya's 'Rock Palm' technique, pushing them both back and raising up a small mist of dust.
They both let up their attacks at the same time and, without even being able to see, quickly maneuvered towards eachother.
Purely relying on their Cursed Energy Sensing they honed so much recently.
Before the dust even cleared, the Fighters were already clashing. Each punch was parried and each kick was countered. the cycle only broken after Genya, during an small opening, used his technique to spawn a rock palm in the still-dissipating dust on Kazuhi's right.
Despite it being covered by the dust, Kazuhi instinctively jumped back just in time for the rock palm to slip right past him and clip his nose slightly.
As the rock palm flew past, it also conveniently covered the vision of both fighters.
Knowing Genya would take advantage of this, Kazuhi quickly pushed out and manipulated his cursed energy into a thin square for it to act as a barrier.
The barrier was created just in time as barely created in time as a wall-Sized fist entered his vision faster then he could percieve
BANG
It hit the barrier with the power of a truck, the only thing stopping it was the measily barrier that Kazuhi knew wouldnt hold up.
'if only it was a full power barrier-shit' Kazuhi quickly thought
So as a last ditch effort as it started cracking and bending he twisted his body to the right with all his strength.
On its last legs the hastily prepared barrier did its job of protecting him and shattered, letting the massive fist fly past and impact the colosseum-like wall behind him.
SMASH
Anticipating this and abusing the time gained from kazuhi being off balance, Genya flew forward towards him using a rock palm beneath him for his feet to ride on, massively increasing his speed.
sensing Genya's cursed energy signature closing in on him he quickly pushed as much cursed energy in his hand and shot a short blast in his direction.
as if waiting for the blast Genya jumped forward off his flying fist, causing the blast to hit fist instead of him, exploding once again
-BOOM!-
The mid air explosion temporarily captivated the onlookers minds.
looking towards the explosion Genya thought 'Going as normal... lets spice things up a bit'
large amount of Cursed energy built up underneath Kazuhi.
acting quickly Kazuhi once again dodged out of the way to his right.
A second later from where Kazuhi had just stood, two huge rock palms came up from the ground, enveloping the front half of his vision.
THWOOSH
Waiting for Kazuhi after he dodged to the side was Genya, dashing towards him with inhuman speed.
'He's never thought this intensely before-combining this many moves, Gimme a break-' Kazuhi hastily thought
Their hands smacked against eachother Re-igniting their previously interrupted clash.
Genya taking more damage than Kazuhi but still wearing him down enough for it to matter.
still, among the clash, Genya still landed more blows than Kazuhi due to his longer training.
breaking their exchange was a right hook Genya threw towards towards Kazuhi that was immediatly dodged with Kazuhi nimbly shfting his stance and counterattacking, gathering cursed energy into his fist before throwing a hard right hook that smashed against Genya's stomach, sending him flying.
The strongest attack of this battle yet.
While Genya was flying nigh-unconcious, he regained his mind as quickly caught himself with a small rock palm, slowly reducing the speed-stopping right before the wall, while thinking to himself.
'Shit, that one hurt. One more of those and I'm definitely out of it... however, I won't let that happen.'
'its obvious we're both worn out. This will be the final clash.'
Kazuhi, having some time to breathe also starts to think to himself.
'Finally, I got some space to breathe... his hits were starting to get to me. I can tell we're both worn out, but I'm definitely more stamina-deprived. Gotta end this quickly.
As if both their minds connected at once they both locked eyes with eachother, both understanding what was next
'My strongest attack it is then.'
'Max output beam it is then.'
both said at once, simultaneosuly.
They both started charging cursed energy, Kazuhi cupping both his hands and pushing Cursed energy into it-charging it, while Genya channelled his through the wall behind him, causing it to thrum and pulsate.
To the croud it seemed like they were in a trance, both glaring at eachother as cursed energy grew around them.
After a few silent seconds, they both shouted out their attacks, their shouts acting as the end of this round, the declaration that this was the final attackl.
"MAX OUTPUT BORDER BLAST!"
"MAX OUTPUT ROCK PALM!"
Kazuhi's max output cursed energy beam shot out from his hands, starting as a small beam but expanding multiple times over, shortly reaching the size of a small wall.
While Genya's max output rock palm flew out of the wall behind him, shrouding his body in darkness. its size being bigger than anything seen previously.
The seemingly small house-sized rock palm surged towards Kazuhi's energy-dense beam.
-SMASH!-
As they clashed, everything else went silent... silence created by multiple seconds of focused intensity as both fighters poured all their cursed energy into the attack...
they both felt a shift in the clash and raged to put all the rest of their depleted cursed energy into the attack.
"RAHH!"
"RAH!"
however as a result of Kazuhi's energy dense beam and higher Cursed energy output,
Kazuhi's beam won...
The beam broke through Genya's technique and headed straight for his head. It could have been deadly, but it was too late for Kazuhi to stop it and for Genya to dodge it.
"Watch Outt-"
The blast drew closer to Genyas head by the second, if it hit it would certainly kill him.
However-
just as it was about to hit
It was blocked.
The Head of the Akashi, Shiga Zenin, stood where the blast would've landed, his palm proudly stopping the attack.
Looking at his two most prodigious students thoughtfully as the dust fell away.
'I guess this shows how far Rivalry can get people, getting multiple times stronger in just 4 months is absurd, even WITH my cursed technique buffing them.'
he then gesturing to the referee that was displeased he stepped in.
The referee then looked towards Naohiro subtly before announcing the conclusion of the match.
"KAZUHI ZENIN... WINS!"
After the declaration, the crowd went wild, screaming, shouting, cheering for their new recruit beating someone older than him, especially a 4th seat. Such a feat was almost unprecedented for someone's first tournament.
Kazuhi basked in the cheers of his comrades, sighing-calming his body and de-activing his Reinforcment finally.
thinking back to what happened before the match He once again looked up and locked eyes with Naohiro, who immediately looked away and walked back with a slight smile that Kazuhi barely couldn't see, "Good job, my son..."
Kazuhi, who was confused by Naohiro breaking his stare that unusually, thought to himself.
'Thats... New?'
After a brief pause, Kazuhi walked over to Genya and offered him a hand. Genya accepted it immediately, and they began walking away together while talking as if they weren't exhausted from their fight.
"You had me on the ropes the whole time, wheres that new intense attack combination come from?" Kazuhi said.
Genya chuckled. "made it just for you, knew my normal pattern wouldnt work... though it seems even that didn't work"
"You did good-dont worry, anyway foods on me!" Kazuhi said loudly
pumping his fist up Genya shouted "Alright!"
...
Walking away Kazuhi stole a glance up at the empty seat where Naohiro had been.