An abandoned mine sat roughly eighty kilometers north of the Final Exam venue. Its veins of ore had long since run dry, leaving behind a desolate expanse wrapped in absolute silence.
In the open excavation plaza of this deserted mine, four figures stood where nobody was ever supposed to be.
"So this is our duel ground?"
"Yeah. It's an abandoned quarry. Out here, we won't cause trouble for anyone."
Indeed. This place was chosen as the dueling arena for Aisha and Netero. The reason was exceedingly simple: it was reasonably close to the exam site, completely devoid of human presence, and met all necessary conditions.
To take it to an extreme, had there been no concern about disturbing others, they could have fought right at the hotel of the Final Exam. But when two people—the absolute pinnacle Nen users of humanity—fight with everything they have, such a venue is out of the question. The shockwaves alone would pulverize nearby buildings, and anything suffering a direct hit would be reduced to fine dust. The total collapse of the entire hotel would be a foregone conclusion.
Escaping with only property damage would be a blessing. If bystanders were caught in the crossfire, anyone who wasn't a Nen user—or even an inexperienced Nen user—would suffer catastrophic casualties.
Thus, there were no spectators. Aside from the two duelists, the only people present were Linna and Bisky, who possessed the skill to handle any stray shockwaves and acted as official witnesses to the duel.
"Now then, for this duel, Linna Rockbelt, General Director of the Kazama-ryu Dojo Headquarters—"
"—and Biscuit Krueger, Shingen-ryu Kung Fu Master, shall bear witness!"
The moment those voices echoed across the plateau, the atmosphere between the two facing each other shifted drastically.
Sensing the rapidly surging battle aura, Linna and Bisky tensed with palpable nervousness. Though they had witnessed duels between these two countless times in the past, they had never felt pressure of this magnitude.
"Come to think of it... I've kept you waiting for a very long time," Aisha murmured amidst the mounting tension.
"Hm? ...Ah, fourteen years. It's been nearly fourteen years since you died. Honestly, you sure took your time—"
"No, that's not it. What I kept you waiting for... was the opportunity to go all out."
"...What?"
Netero looked puzzled. It was only natural. In all his battles with Aisha—or rather, Ryusho—he had never once held back. Holding back in a duel was anathema to a martial artist, and if Ryusho had been someone he could defeat while holding back, he would never have acknowledged him as his greatest rival in the first place.
Yet Aisha did not see it that way.
Of course, Aisha didn't believe Netero had gone easy on him either. If he had, Netero wouldn't have been so visibly frustrated every time he lost.
However, whether Netero had ever been forced to unleash his absolute, unreserved maximum power was another matter entirely. After all, whenever Netero deployed the true pinnacle of his ability, the 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva, his victory over Ryusho was virtually guaranteed.
And he had always won with strength to spare.
Even when wielding the Guanyin Bodhisattva, Netero had never dropped his guard for an instant. A fraction of a second's delay in activation would have meant eating a lethal blow. Yet it remained an undeniable fact that in every duel where he activated the Guanyin Bodhisattva to win, Netero had energy left in reserve.
That was what rubbed Aisha the wrong way.
Not that Netero had reserves left.
Rather, that she had only possessed enough strength to leave her ultimate rival with energy to spare.
But now is different.
True, her body had changed, and aligning her technique with her new physical form had been an ordeal. As for reaching that supreme mental realm from her previous life, she wasn't sure if she could ever truly replicate it. Right now, she had reclaimed virtually all of her past technical mastery, but in pure Kazama-ryu execution alone, Ryusho still held a razor-thin edge over Aisha. It was her own self; she knew that better than anyone.
Yet the one who would win a fight today is my current self.
She could state that with absolute confidence. The further increase in aura capacity, the new techniques acquired after reincarnation, and the overcoming of her greatest past-life weakness—durability—thanks to her enhanced physical body.
In terms of total combat capability, her current self surpassed Ryusho!
"Come, Netero. I shall quench your thirst."
"Heh... hehehe! Yeah, I'm counting on it, Aisha!!"
Here and now, the duel between the two supreme Nen masters of humanity began.
◆
Five minutes had already passed since the two stood in silence, neither making a move.
Linna felt a sharp sense of deja vu. It was the exact same scene from that day so many decades ago, when the two first clashed.
The only differences were the surrounding landscape, Aisha's appearance, and above all, her aura.
In stark contrast to Netero, who radiated a colossal, needle-sharp aura honed to perfection, Aisha emitted no aura whatsoever. To be precise, she wasn't even maintaining Ten; she was simply letting unrefined aura leak loosely from her body.
Aisha was a master of blindingly fast Ryu. Was she concealing her aura flow to keep her movements unpredictable? Yet Linna found herself wondering why Aisha had not used a single drop of real Nen during yesterday's training either.
While those doubts lingered, the battle abruptly accelerated.
Netero moved first. As if recreating their very first duel, he launched forward with godspeed stepping and fired a straight punch. The sheer velocity was so extreme that both Linna and Bisky momentarily lost sight of Netero's figure.
A speed that even two top-tier masters observing from a distance could barely track! To the one facing him directly, how fast must he appear? In fact, it was doubtful whether human eyes could even register him.
Yet the very next thing the two witnesses saw was Netero soaring through the air.
To instantly read that strike and execute an Aiki throw—what level of godlike skill was that? Linna swelled with awe while Bisky felt a chill of dread.
Having not seen this pinnacle clash for over a decade, both women channeled maximum Gyo to their eyes, refusing to miss a single microsecond.
Netero's reaction upon being thrown was instantaneous. To prevent his wrist and elbow joints from being shattered, he rode the momentum and flipped mid-air. Utilizing the centrifugal force, he fired an inverted kick while upside down. The entire sequence was a seamless, practiced flow.
Aisha evaded the kick with minimal movement and placed a single finger on his passing ankle.
With just that subtle touch, Netero's body was about to spin violently—until Netero grabbed Aisha's ankle with one hand to arrest the rotation. With his remaining hand bracing against the ground, he anchored himself and prepared a flurry of kicks.
Yet before the kick could land, Netero let go of Aisha's ankle. He had realized that Aisha was preparing to execute an Aiki throw using her leg. Netero didn't scoff at the absurdity of throwing someone with a leg; it was precisely because she pulled off such absurd feats as if they were second nature that she was his ultimate rival.
Admiring Netero's clean escape, Aisha pressed the offensive without letting up. Exploiting the split-second opening created when Netero aborted his attack, she stepped in and drove forward with a body-weighted elbow strike.
The moment Netero raised his free arm to guard against it, a violent chill ran down his spine.
It was a warning bell forged across tens of thousands of battles—an instinct born from experience that made the phrase "battle-hardened" seem wholly inadequate. Trusting that raw intuition, Netero slammed his guarding arm into the earth and used the recoil to vault backward, creating distance.
The two witnesses looked on with confusion.
That elbow strike: while taking it directly would cause damage, Netero could have counterattacked immediately afterward to inflict far greater harm on Aisha. In pure striking power, Aisha had always been inferior to Netero. No matter how much her physical specs had improved, she still lagged behind Netero's raw striking potency. Even if she used Gyo at the point of impact, she could never surpass Netero's Gyo-reinforced defense.
In their previous life, their aura reserves were nearly identical, and their active aura output showed little variance. In a pure slugfest, Netero—an Enhancer—held an undeniable advantage.
Thus, both witnesses believed the outcome would hinge on how effectively Aisha could parry and redirect Netero's devastating strikes, just as in the past.
Therefore, that elbow strike seemed like a tactical error on Aisha's part. Even Linna wondered why her master had thrown such a blow. Yet Netero had chosen to evade it. Why?
As if answering their unasked question, Aisha spoke.
"As expected of Netero. You actually sensed the danger in that strike."
Judging by her words, that strike had carried lethal risk that was invisible from the outside.
Did master invent a new secret technique? If so, I must learn it at once, the master-obsessed disciple thought, while Aisha continued.
"...I suppose you'd find out eventually anyway. Besides, I doubt my aura will last against you in 'this state'."
"...? What are you babbling about?"
Is she about to explain her technique? That'd ruin the fun, Netero thought—before freezing in utter speechlessness at the sight before his eyes.
No, not just Netero. Linna and Bisky also gasped, as if witnessing the impossible.
Standing before them was Aisha, radiating a colossal, ominous, pitch-black aura that bore zero resemblance to the noble spirit of Ryusho.
"W-What is that...?"
"M-Master?"
"Y-You've gotta be kidding me..."
All three were paralyzed with shock. Had Aisha chosen to attack Netero at that exact moment, the duel would have likely ended in an instant.
Yet their shock was understandable.
Had an enemy emitted such an aura, Netero might have been surprised, but he would never have left such an opening. The problem was that Ryusho was the one emitting it.
How could a man who embodied upright virtue, stoic discipline, and lifelong dedication to martial arts possess an aura so fundamentally sinister?
Looking at the three paralyzed onlookers, Aisha gave a self-deprecating chuckle and confessed.
"It's likely a side-effect of reincarnation. ...From the very moment I drew breath in this world, my aura was altered to this quality. Calling it reincarnation sounds pleasant, but in truth, it simply means I am a resurrected corpse."
She added with a wry smile, "Without concealing this aura, I couldn't even live a normal daily life."
"...! So the reason your aura showed no change until now was...!"
"Precisely as you've deduced. It is the effect of my new Nen ability, [Angel's Veil]. While active, my aura cannot be perceived by any means."
"T-That's completely unfair!" Bisky exclaimed.
Bisky's reaction was entirely justified. In a Nen battle, the single most critical factor is reading the flow of aura.
If you can see how an opponent distributes their aura, the tactical advantage is overwhelming. Discerning feints from real strikes, calculating the exact aura ratio between offense and defense, and controlling the rhythm of battle—that is the essence of aura manipulation.
Being completely unable to perceive it puts an opponent at an unfathomable disadvantage.
"Though I originally created it purely to hide this aura," Aisha noted.
Don't go creating broken abilities for such trivial reasons! was the unanimous thought of all three onlookers.
"...I see now," Netero murmured. "That elbow strike earlier was packed with a massive amount of aura."
"Precisely."
It all made sense now. The aura currently enveloping Aisha was far beyond what Ryusho had possessed in his past life. With output of that magnitude, piercing Netero's defense was entirely possible.
"Heh... hehe, now this is getting interesting."
"...You don't feel disgust?" Aisha asked quietly.
"Huh? What nonsense are you spouting now?"
Netero waved it off casually, urging her to stop talking nonsense and get back to fighting. Aisha blinked in surprise. Having worried over how to explain this aura and whether her closest friend would accept her, Netero's effortless dismissal caught her off guard.
"Why the hell would I despise you? Sure, your body changed. Your gender changed. The quality of your aura changed. But—you're still you, aren't you?"
Hearing those words and understanding their full meaning, Aisha's heart overflowed with pure joy. Her greatest friend and rival had accepted her as she was. That was all that mattered.
Every trace of hesitation vanished from her soul. All that was left was to fight with everything she had!
"By the way, are you not going to use that [Angel's Veil] anymore? Fighting with invisible aura is a massive advantage, you know."
"You already know the answer. You'd simply treat every single one of my attacks as a maximum Ko strike, wouldn't you?"
"Naturally! I've sparred with you countless times when you used blindingly fast Ryu. Against anyone else it might be fatal, but against me, it's just annoying to deal with."
"I thought as much. Besides, that ability has a fatal drawback. In a serious match against you, it's better left unused."
After all, Angel's Veil multiplied aura consumption tenfold. Even with Aisha's monstrous reserves, she couldn't afford to burn aura at ten times the rate against Netero.
"Here I come, Netero. ...This is the first time I've ever shown my full Ren to another living soul."
With those words, a titanic tempest of aura erupted from Aisha's body.
Linna and Bisky were rendered speechless. This was aura on a scale that could only be described as the absolute peak of humanity. It continued to swell and expand. Netero had an acquaintance who could quantify aura levels, but right now, what astronomical number Aisha would register was beyond anyone's comprehension.
Yet looking upon that sea of aura, one man broke into a broad grin.
"Think you can take it all?! Everything I've got!!"
Netero unleashed his full aura in resonance.
From this moment on, the battle could no longer be called a reenactment of the past.
The dynamic of Ryusho versus Netero was gone; this was Aisha versus Netero.
◆
The two faced off once more. But unlike before, Aisha made the first move.
Maintaining her Kazama-ryu stance, she closed the distance toward Netero.
"!?"
Shock struck again. What Aisha performed was not her past-life signature footwork, Willow Leaf Sway.
Willow Leaf Sway was a high-level evasive art that deceived an opponent's perception of balance and center of gravity through specialized stepping, slipping into their blind spot.
This was completely different. Without relying on stepping, living beings must move parts of their body when taking action—that is a universal law of biology.
Yet Aisha seemed to disregard that law entirely. Without moving a single muscle, she glided forward as if the very ground beneath her was shrinking.
The secret behind this motion—though her body remained motionless—was, of course, Nen. It was not a formal Hatsu, but an advanced application of aura control.
By gathering aura under the soles of her feet and spinning it at high velocity, she propelled herself forward without taking a single step. Describing it in words was simple, but executing it required transcendent mastery.
In reverse, anyone with sufficient aura and skill could perform it. In essence, it was simply an advanced Nen application.
Ryusho had always relied on such fundamental techniques. Whether Willow Leaf Sway or Penetration Palm, his repertoire consisted of universal principles pushed to their absolute zenith. Lacking abilities that granted unfair combat advantages, he had to conquer through pure skill.
That philosophy remained unchanged now that she was Aisha. Thus, she had continued refining new techniques after reincarnation. This was one of the fruits of that labor: Shukuchi (Ground Shrinking).
Naturally, Netero had never experienced such a movement before. Yet encountering the unexpected was nothing new in Nen combat. Close-quarters combat was his domain anyway. All he had to do was intercept her!
With a thundering kiai, Netero unleashed a straight punch at the incoming Aisha. Aisha met it with a punch of her own.
When their fists collided, Netero's punch was blasted aside without a moment of equilibrium.
Aisha, a Specialist, had overpowered Netero, an Enhancer!
In high-level Nen combat, such an absurdity should never occur. Yet the overwhelming difference in total aura volume, combined with Aisha's ultra-fast Ryu switching to Ko at the precise moment of impact, made the impossible reality.
With Netero's balance broken from the deflected punch, Aisha pressed her advantage, unleashing a relentless barrage of strikes reinforced by her titanic aura.
Yet her opponent was Netero. No matter how much she boosted her stats, Netero had spent a century mastering pure striking. If he couldn't win a direct clash of power, he simply wouldn't trade blows directly. Evading every strike with razor-thin margins, he searched for an opening.
Realizing her strikes weren't landing, Aisha switched tactics, using Shukuchi to orbit around Netero at high speed.
It was a velocity that even master martial artists would struggle to track. Gliding at blinding speeds while keeping her body completely still created a visual anomaly that thoroughly disrupted visual tracking.
Netero chose to wait. For the moment of attack. No matter how skilled Aisha was, she had to move her body when throwing a strike. If he couldn't read her approach, he would intercept the instant she struck.
Yet right before his eyes, Aisha suddenly altered her rhythm. Transitioning from Shukuchi directly into Willow Leaf Sway, she vanished from Netero's sightline.
The time it took Netero to abort his prepared strike was mere fractions of a second. But that fraction was a fatal opening.
An unobstructed back lay exposed—the perfect opportunity for a decisive blow! Channeling her entire spirit, Aisha struck his unguarded back with the technique she trusted most: Penetration Palm (Shintou-shou).
It connected! Aisha thought with certainty. An inescapable, undefendable strike. Taking this blow would fell even Netero.
Yet in that exact instant, a question flashed through Aisha's mind: Why didn't he intercept with the Guanyin Bodhisattva?
Was he too slow? Aisha herself knew that was impossible. The Bodhisattva had forms capable of striking behind him.
—Don't tell me...?!—
Now it was Aisha's turn to be stunned.
Netero had blocked the Penetration Palm.
To neutralize Penetration Palm—which injected aura directly into the internal organs via palm shock—one had to manipulate internal aura to cancel out the incoming wave. Having realized he could not dodge the follow-up attack, Netero had braced his internal aura specifically to negate the Penetration Palm, betting everything on the certainty that Aisha would choose that exact technique at the decisive moment.
Netero had refused to use the Guanyin Bodhisattva for one simple reason: pure pride.
How many times had that Penetration Palm forced him to taste defeat? Over half of Netero's past losses against Ryusho were due to that single strike. Conquering Penetration Palm with his own hands had been the personal trial Netero set for himself prior to this duel.
"Tch!"
Aisha leaped backward instantly. But she was a fraction of a second too late. Netero's counter-backfist struck her face. Aisha instinctively guarded with Gyo; thanks to her superior aura volume, she suffered little physical damage.
Yet her pride took a direct hit.
"...You neutralized the Penetration Palm."
The supreme technique she had spent decades refining—the ultimate strike that allowed her frail past self to defeat any opponent—had been overcome.
Shock reverberated through Aisha's soul.
"I drank plenty of bitter tears because of that move. I never stopped training to counter it... even after you were gone."
Hearing the resolve and obsession in Netero's voice, Aisha felt a deep sense of respect. To think he had held onto that rivalry for so long.
However—
"Bitter tears? That's my line. ...Unleash the 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva, Netero. I'm going to smash your strongest ability...!"
Indeed. Aisha had suffered just as much frustration. Whenever the Guanyin Bodhisattva came out, she lost. The humiliation of that recurring defeat burned brightly.
If her supreme technique had been broken, she would simply break Netero's supreme technique in return.
"...Heh, fine by me! I'll take that challenge!"
At this moment, Bisky was convinced of Netero's victory, while Linna braced for Aisha's defeat.
It was only natural. The 100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva was an inescapable blitz. Striking faster than any human movement, it could counter any attack before it landed. Delivering attacks while remaining untouchable—it was the absolute pinnacle of offensive and defensive unity.
No matter how much Aisha's aura and durability had increased, she could not endure it forever. Eventually, her aura would deplete or her body would shatter.
Yet Netero did not assume victory. Aisha—Ryusho—was not someone who made baseless boasts.
Therefore, he struck with everything he had.
—[100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva: First Palm]!!—
The golden Bodhisattva manifested in an instant, bringing down a massive chopping strike upon Aisha. The blow struck cleanly, pulverizing the bedrock beneath her into a colossal crater.
"Master!!?"
"Wait, that was too much!!"
The witnesses panicked because this attack differed fundamentally from how Netero fought Ryusho in the past.
Ryusho had survived past Bodhisattva strikes because they were lateral blows. By going limp and dispersing the impact across his body while maintaining Ken, he combined soft and hard defense to survive.
But this was a downward hammer strike. With the ground blocking her descent, the impact could not be dispersed; instead, being pinned against the bedrock magnified the destructive force tenfold.
It's over. We have to get her out of there!
As the two rushed forward in alarm, a figure slowly stepped out from the center of the crater.
Her clothes were tattered and minor cuts covered her body, but her stride was steady, and the fire in her eyes burned undiminished.
"Just how durable is she...?"
Bisky wondered how many lifetimes worth of shock she was expected to endure in a single day.
"Impressive toughness," Netero remarked. "But don't think durability alone is enough to conquer the Guanyin Bodhisattva."
"Don't be so impatient. If it could be broken in a single second, I wouldn't have struggled for decades!"
The moment she finished speaking, Aisha charged forward again. Netero immediately met her with the optimal Bodhisattva form.
First Palm couldn't be used—Aisha positioned herself at an angle where downward strikes were unfeasible. Even with her enhanced durability, taking repeated un-dispersible downward blows was suicide. Aisha was deliberately attacking from angles that forced different forms.
Taking hit after hit from the Bodhisattva, Aisha mapped out the attack patterns. She didn't need to learn every single permutation—in truth, memorizing all combinations was impossible. She only needed to identify the forms whose shockwaves she couldn't disperse, avoid those angles, and keep pressing forward.
Again and again, she launched fearless frontal charges.
◆
Netero was the first to sense something unusual.
After unleashing over a hundred Bodhisattva strikes, Aisha had already deduced the forms most dangerous to her. But that was fine. While the forms were finite, their possible combinations were limitless. Reaching him through that infinite web should be impossible before Aisha's stamina gave out.
Yet as Aisha was blown backward by another Bodhisattva strike, Netero noticed an anomaly: the trajectory of her recoil was completely unnatural.
According to basic physics, an object struck moves in the direction of the applied force. A blow from the right sends you left, and vice versa.
Yet Aisha was rebounding at bizarre, erratic angles after every hit, completely defying natural trajectories.
Then Netero realized: at the exact moment of impact, the aura enveloping Aisha's body was spinning at high speed like a top.
Unbelievably, Aisha was not merely bracing with Ken; she was spinning her entire aura shroud at extreme velocity to actively deflect and disperse the kinetic energy.
Doing that across her entire body while sustaining Ken was a feat of world-class aura control.
With this technique, surviving the Bodhisattva was genuinely possible. In fact, she was actively surviving it. Despite taking blows that shattered boulders and cracked the earth, her movements showed no sign of slowing down.
"...Fascinating."
Netero had never faced an opponent who could withstand his ultimate ability like this. If Aisha breached his defense and reached him, defeat would fall upon him.
Yet meeting an indomitable foe with all one's might—that was the supreme martial joy he had sought his entire life!
Show me! How will you break the Guanyin Bodhisattva?! Filled with exhilarating anticipation, Netero continued his barrage.
Suddenly, Aisha altered her approach.
She leaped into the air. Had she concluded there were no anti-air forms? The Bodhisattva was not so easily outmaneuvered. But before Netero could select a form, Aisha changed direction mid-air at impossible speed.
What Aisha did was straightforward: she emitted bursts of aura behind her, using the propulsion to maneuver through three-dimensional space. Executing it required vast aura reserves and masterful Emission skill.
By chaining these propulsion bursts, Aisha danced through the air like a fighter jet. Netero was impressed, yet exasperated—if he asked her, she'd probably claim anyone could do this with enough practice.
Yet even that could not find an opening in the Bodhisattva. The Guanyin's forms covered a full 360-degree sphere. It was precisely because it could intercept from above—an angle from which attacks normally never came—that Netero had remained undefeated.
No matter which aerial angle Aisha attacked from, she was battered back. Yet each time, she rocketed back in. Even Aisha was accumulating substantial internal damage, and her aura pool had dropped by nearly half. Propelling herself and spinning her aura consumed immense energy.
Even while minimizing waste, taking hundreds of strikes meant unavoidable aura depletion.
My strategy is working. I'm almost there. Just a little more, and I'll have the timing! Convinced she could land a clean hit, Aisha pressed in—only for Netero to shift from interception to an all-out offensive form.
—[100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva: Ninety-Ninth Palm]!!—
Leaping above Aisha, Netero assumed the stance. Sensing the unfamiliar form, a primal terror gripped Aisha's instincts.
Bad news!
Even knowing it was coming, the attack was unavoidable.
A torrential storm of palms rained down from the Bodhisattva. Aisha used her high-speed aura rotation—a technique she called Kai ( Rotation)—to deflect the first palm and rebound away from the barrage, but the sheer density of strikes caught her. Like a leaf trapped in a hurricane, she was battered mercilessly through the air.
Only after enduring a dozen brutal impacts did she manage to break free from the attack zone, coughing blood from severe internal trauma.
Had she been swallowed by the full storm and pounded into the bedrock, the duel would have ended right there. Looking at the ground being pulverized into dust below, Aisha noted: Wait... it's still striking?
Indeed. The Guanyin Bodhisattva was still relentlessly pounding the empty earth where Aisha had been.
In that instant, enlightenment struck.
The Guanyin Bodhisattva operated by executing pre-set forms. While the combinations were infinite, once a specific form was initiated, it had to run its full course before transitioning to the next.
That is the Guanyin Bodhisattva's sole vulnerability!
Aisha rocketed toward the airborne Netero at maximum speed. If she could strike before he assumed his next form—!
Yet just before her blow connected, Netero's hands clasped into a new form.
◆
Netero had broken into a cold sweat.
He hadn't expected her to escape the Ninety-Ninth Palm. What a truly monstrous technique. From here on, a single miscalculation would be fatal.
Seeing his new form initiate before Aisha could strike, Netero felt a momentary relief. The optimal Bodhisattva form would swat Aisha away once more. While the damage might be minimized by her rotation, the outcome of the exchange should be identical to every previous clash.
And indeed, the blow connected.
What differed... was the direction she flew.
Aisha appeared directly in front of Netero's face.
Why?! Why is she right in front of me?! The strike hit dead-on!
Amidst his shock, Netero arrived at the answer.
—She intentionally adjusted the rotation of her aura to fling herself directly toward me!—
Without Netero realizing it, Aisha had been altering the spin direction of her Kai with every single strike she took.
She had calculated the exact angle and rotation required to bounce in any desired direction upon impact. That patient, grinding trial-and-error had finally borne fruit.
She deliberately attacked from an angle that forced a predictable Bodhisattva counter, then angled her aura rotation so that the strike hurled her straight into point-blank range.
The gambit was a total success. Netero was right before her eyes!
The Bodhisattva had just finished executing its form; there was an infinitesimal cooldown before the next could be summoned. Into that razor-thin sliver of time, Aisha poured her entire soul.
A full-power Ko punch smashed directly into Netero's abdomen.
"Gwahhh?!"
Spitting a massive fountain of blood, Netero was hurled out of the sky and crashed into the ground.
He had reinforced his stomach with Ko to meet her punch. As an Enhancer, his raw physical output was superior, and his aura defense had been deployed in time.
Yet even with Ko, the damage was catastrophic. Several ribs shattered, and his internal organs suffered severe hemorrhaging.
As Netero landed and struggled to regain his footing, Aisha unleashed her follow-up. For the first time in the duel, she channeled her emitted aura into pure offense, firing a colossal aura cannon large enough to engulf an entire person whole.
Netero reflexively swatted at the blast with the Bodhisattva. The golden palm collided with the beam, grinding against each other with a deafening roar before the aura cannon finally dissipated.
Yet before the blast had even faded, Aisha had already made her next move.
She couldn't afford to waste a single second; allowing Netero to reset meant facing the Bodhisattva all over again. And there was no guarantee the same trick would work twice.
Though Netero couldn't see it, Aisha's body was pushed to its absolute limit. No matter how effectively she dispersed kinetic energy, shock still accumulated. Her bones were lined with hairline fractures, several internal organs were bleeding, and her mouth was filled with the metallic taste of blood.
She had to decide the match right now.
Cloaking herself in In, Aisha dove along the path of the aura cannon, using the blinding light of her own blast as visual cover to touch down silently behind Netero.
As she anticipated, Netero had neutralized the beam with his Bodhisattva. But by the time he realized the sky was empty and scanned his surroundings, it was too late.
Aisha had already stepped inside his guard.
The Bodhisattva couldn't deploy in time. A physical counter was impossible.
Yet seeing her stance, a spark of hope lit up in Netero's eyes.
He recognized the posture: Aisha was preparing to unleash the Penetration Palm. Netero instantly concentrated his internal aura to meet the shockwave. He had countered it once; there was no reason he couldn't counter it again.
If it were a standard Penetration Palm, that is.
Aisha's right palm struck first. And before the internal shockwave could be dissipated by Netero's defense, her left palm slammed directly over the back of her right hand in immediate succession!
—Penetration Twin Palms—
This was the ultimate secret art Ryusho had conceived decades ago, anticipating the day Netero would eventually figure out how to counter the single palm.
The stacked shockwave amplified exponentially. No amount of internal aura manipulation could withstand the doubled resonance.
"It broke through...!"
"...Guh-cough!"
Spitting a massive wave of blood, Netero slowly collapsed to his knees.
Bisky rushed toward Netero in utter panic. Having experienced the Penetration Palm from Linna firsthand, she knew the terrifying lethality of the technique. A stacked double-strike was easily fatal.
"Can you... still go on?" Aisha asked, though she already knew the answer from the blazing spirit in his eyes.
"O-Of course. I haven't... shown you... everything yet!"
Netero forced himself upright, his aura flaring anew. Aisha answered by raising her own aura in resonance.
"Wait, old man! You're at your limit! Any more will kill you!" Bisky yelled frantically.
"Indeed. The match is decided," Linna declared. "The victor of this duel is Master—"
"SHUT UP!"
Both Aisha and Netero roared in unison, silencing the two witnesses instantly.
"Whether I'm at my limit is for me to decide! I'm having the time of my life right now. Don't you dare get in my way!"
"I cannot claim victory until I have taken everything Netero has to offer. If you stop this duel now, I won't forgive even you, Linna!"
Overwhelmed by the sheer ferocity radiating from both fighters, Linna and Bisky fell silent. The only ones who could end this battle were the two duelists themselves.
"Here it comes, Aisha. I'll show you my absolute all: Zero Hand!"
"Bring it, Netero. I will take everything you have."
Both fighters were covered in wounds, yet their expressions beamed with pure, unadulterated joy.
Aisha pushed her Ren to its absolute limit, steeling herself to endure Netero's ultimate attack. If she survived this, her victory was assured.
Attacking Netero while he was severely weakened would have been far easier. But Aisha refused. Taking Netero's strongest blow and standing tall after he gave his all—that was the only way she could proudly call herself his ultimate rival.
Facing her unwavering resolve, Netero felt nothing but gratitude.
Never in his long life had he been pushed to unleash every drop of his being. As the decades passed and his body aged, he had often despaired that he would never again find an opponent against whom he could fight without holding back.
Yet here, at the end of his years, his greatest rival had returned. His heart soared, and his aura thrummed with youthful vigor.
He had thought his prime was long gone. But he was wrong.
In the crucible of battle against an equal, he knew: his body had aged, his maximum capacity had dropped, but right now, he was stronger than he had ever been in his entire life!
With boundless gratitude toward the person who elevated him to this height, Netero unleashed his final, ultimate strike.
—[100-Type Guanyin Bodhisattva: Zero Hand]!!!—
As Aisha braced for the blow, the golden Bodhisattva manifested behind her, trapping her within a loving, inescapable embrace. Before she could process her immobilization, she felt an unfathomable concentration of aura swelling directly behind her.
Evasion was impossible. Taking this head-on meant—!
In the two days prior to this duel, Netero had accumulated every scrap of his latent aura through unbroken meditation. Now, he converted that entire reserve into a blinding flare of light, firing a devastating blast of compressed aura directly into her back!
A merciless roar of raw destruction enveloped Aisha entirely.
◆
"A-Ah..."
"...There's no way."
As the billowing dust slowly cleared, Linna and Bisky stared at a perfectly carved circular crater in the earth.
The crater was surprisingly small given the astronomical aura that produced it. But that was because the entire force had been hyper-compressed into a localized point of destruction. The surface of the crater was carved as smooth as ice cream scooped with a spoon.
Looking upon that devastation, both women felt despair. Surviving a strike of that magnitude seemed impossible.
Yet—
"Gasp... huff... cough..."
A silhouette parted the dust.
Linna and Bisky stared as if seeing a ghost.
It was no ghost.
Her clothes were blasted to tatters, blood ran down every limb, and her body was covered in severe burns and lacerations. But Aisha was standing upright on her own two feet.
"That was... a magnificent... strike..."
With unsteady steps, Aisha slowly walked toward Netero. Surviving was a miracle in itself, yet her fighting will remained unbroken.
"Heh... heh... you actually... endured... the Zero Hand..."
Turning to look at Netero, Linna and Bisky were struck speechless once more.
Netero stood before them withered and gaunt as dry wood, every drop of his life energy spent.
"Honestly... I really thought I was going to die," Aisha wheezed.
When trapped by the Zero Hand, Aisha had executed three desperate defenses in rapid succession.
The moment she recognized the inescapable nature of the blast, she fired every ounce of emitted aura backward at the Bodhisattva. The two energies clashed, but her emitted beam was instantly overwhelmed by the blinding flare.
Aisha moved to her second defense without hesitation. Shaping her aura into a dense conical barrier behind her, she sought to deflect the blast. But that Transmutation defense was obliterated in a fraction of a second, like holding an umbrella under a torrential waterfall.
Her final action was purely primal: pouring every remaining drop of aura into absolute Ken defense around her body.
And that brought them to this moment.
"Hehe... haha..."
"Wheeze... Is it really... that funny?" Netero asked, seeing her laugh.
Aisha smiled warmly through the blood on her face.
"Yeah. I'm happy. ...Because I was finally, truly able to take everything you had."
"Netero."
"...What?"
"Did you give it everything?"
"Look at me... do I look like I kept anything back?"
"Is your thirst quenched?"
"Yeah. I have nothing... but gratitude."
"I see. ...Sorry for keeping you waiting."
"You made it in time. I've got... no complaints."
Their consciousnesses were fading, and their vision was blurring. Yet in that final moment of clarity, they spoke the exact same words in unison:
『Just remember this—next time, I'm going to win!』
And with that, both fell unconscious simultaneously.