SHIN SEKAI: SPARK OF THE NEW WORLD

Burn out

As soon as Ellie noticed there was something wrong with Orie, she signaled her crew to turn off their cameras. He had been mumbling for a while but soon the mumbling intensified. His eyes were heavy, his voice was inaudible, he could feel his consciousness fading but he kept on praying.

He had thought that he had enough strength to keep up the prayer but his condition was worse than he had thought it was.

"I'm sorry" he said as he fell to his knees and went silent.

As the paramedics were rushing to take Orie away the thing that he was trying to keep under control broke free and took over Natsumi.

Kaen tried to call back his flames but they were sniffed out as soon as they came in. The mist was thick, it was cold and he could barely see what was in front of him. Icicles were coming at him from different angles and he could hardly evade any of them.

He saw himself at a dead end. He could not see anything he could do that would cause him to win the match. He was tired, bleeding, aching all over and was about to give up when he heard his name.

"Kaen!!"

"Kaen!!"

"Kaen!!"

In the midst of all he was going through, he could hear the crowd calling his name. He was not hearing it before, not because they weren't calling for him but because he was so focused on winning the match that he had ignored everything else.

He could feel the love in their chants and the thought of disappointing them made him angry at himself. He could not stand the thought of betraying the hopes of those that were cheering for him.

He immediately mustered strength and began to run towards his opponent.

"IGNITE!!" he yelled and his flames came on but were immediately blown out.

"IGNITE" he yelled again and the same thing happened but he kept on yelling.

"IGNITE!!"

"IGNITE!!"

"IGNITE!!"

Each time he yelled, the flames grew stronger and he kept up his advance. As he got to the point where his opponent was hovering above him, he gathered all his strength at his feet and with hot flames bursting from beneath him, he leaped above her and the sunlight cast his shadow on her face.

For the first time since the mist appeared, the crowd saw kaen. The cheers that filled the air was so loud that the stadium shook. The champion was still in the fight.

"Oh flame that dwells within the heart of our world..."

"...manifest the fire in my heart"

"Let it light up the sky"

"IGNITE!!"

The flames that emanated from kaen were so bright that for a moment,it appeared to the audience as if there were two suns in the sky. Before his opponent could make the next move, he caught her by the hand and threw her down to the ground. He immediately followed her and as soon as he landed the mist cleard.

His opponent was quick to open the distance but he was quicker to close it and get a hit in. None of the barriers she put up could stop his advance, nothing she shot at him could slow him down. He kept chasing her around the arena without giving her any chance to Plan her next move. He knew that if he stopped his advance, he would not be able to continue so he kept up his stride and continued crashing through the ice until Natsumi finally got tired of running from him.

As soon as they got engaged in close combat, Kaen could tell that it was different from the last one. Natsumi was moving faster and much more skillfully than she was in their previous clash. He could tell that he was facing a completely different person from who he was fighting at the beginning of the match. The weight of her hits had increased and she was getting in as much as he was. Her cold touch wasn't just turning off his flames, it was freezing his hands and making them numb. With every clash, Kaen had to warm up his body before he could even activate his flames.

"Hotter" Kaen said to himself

"I need to burn hotter"

"It's not enough that I'm warm"

"I need to be flaming"

With a loud roar a large burst of flames came rushing out of his mouth, sending his opponent far from him. This action was reciprocated by an ice spear that grazed his shoulder.

Kaen looked in the direction from which spear was thrown and saw that there was more where it came from. As he formed a sword of flames in his opponent and saw that she had not even broken a sweat. There was hardly any sign on her expression that the fight took any toll on her, nothing but cold dead eyes. Kaen who was nearing his limits saw this and all he could do was laugh.

He knew that even though Natsumi was not the one in control, the power that she displayed belonged to her. He could see that she had held back at the beginning of the match and he could clearly see that she was still holding back but the expression on his face was not that of despair nor was it that of one who had given up, the expression on his face was joy.

With a loud yell along with great speed and precision, he deflected all the spears shot a him and immediately dashed toward his opponent. His blade met her spear and a great clash began.

Kaen had a notable advantage with physical strength and speed but he was greatly outmatched in all other aspects.

Their clash shook the whole stadium and the ground beneath it. Dust, debris, mist and smoke rose into the air every time their weapons met. The clash continued until Kaen landed a strike that sent Natsumi flying into the distance.

"What's going on" Natsumi wondered as she looked all around her. She had just managed to regain control of herself. She stood up and took a few steps forward before she noticed the referee standing in front of her and Kaen lying face down on the ground behind him.

"AND THE WINNER OF THIS QUARTER FINAL MATCH OF THE NEW WORLD TOURNAMENT IS..."

"...NATSUMI FUBUKI"

SHIN SEKAI SECRET: Poison is outlawed in the new world tournament because the damage it does cannot be measured visually.