Resilience Unleashed Part 1

Misuki's eyes were fixed on Kaito, "Kaito..."

Kaito turned around and looked at Mizuki, the corners of his mouth lifting into a small, reassuring smile.

"I'm okay," he said softly.

Mizuki's eyes widened in disbelief, but she quickly composed herself and returned his smile.

"He took him down?" Toru exclaimed.

"He electrocuted him to the brink of his body's limit..."

"To the exact brink," Mizuki interjected with a hint of concern in her voice,

"beyond what his body could handle."

"What kind of power does he possess?" Toru's gaze shifted to Kaito, who remained silent, his expression unreadable.

Mizuki's smile wavered as she scolded Kaito, her voice filled with frustration and relief.

"Stop being reckless, you idiot!"

"Ugh..." Kaito grunted in response, a sheepish look crossing his face.

"You always put yourself in harm's way!" Mizuki admonished.

"See how much you beat yourself up!"

"Are you crazy?!"

Kaito stood frozen, unable to muster a single word, he looked at Toru and they locked eyes.

Toru nodded in silence, and Kaito's eyes widened, 

'He understands' He cried in his thoughts, 

Mizuki continued to scold, but Kaito turned around, turning his attention to Kenshiro

He then strolled toward his unconscious body,

Kaito's voice held a tinge of relief.

"We made it through... somehow," he muttered.

He then looked at his neck and saw a snake tattoo. 

"What's that.. ?" he murmured, his eyes narrowing as he examined the tattoo's every twist and curve. 

Just as he leaned in for a closer look, a flicker of movement caught Kaito's eye.

In a split second, a smoke-veiled dagger hurtled toward him.

With lightning reflexes, he spun around, and the dagger struck the ground, unleashing a billowing cloud of smoke.

Instinctively, Kaito crossed his arms to shield himself from the engulfing haze.

"Kaito" Mizuki shouted in concern, 

The billowing smoke slowly dissipated, revealing Kaito's incredulous expression as he blinked his eyes open.

A voice reverberated through the air, "You did put up quite a show..."

Kaito raised his gaze to find Hatoshi floating on a dissipating smoke cloud, his body battered and bruised.

"You're still kicking, huh?!" Kaito's eyes bore into Hatoshi.

Hatoshi's eyes twinkled with a knowing light, "You certainly caught me off guard, Kaito..."

A flashback flickered, showing Hatoshi walking away, 

As a footstep echoed through the silence, he spun around expecting to see Kaito's motionless form. However, Kaito was no longer there.

'When did he move?' he questioned silently.

Surveying the area with a sharp gaze, his eyes darted from one shadow to the next. 

"No matter, he can't hurt me regardless. "

"I'm made of smoke," he mused with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

A voice said softly "Judgement..."

"Huh" Hatoshi exclaimed and turned around, seeing Kaito's hand coiled back, electrocuting with Lightning

"... Stormbreaker!"

he threw the thunderbolt toward Hatoshi

And the flashback ended,

Hatoshi's words hanging in the air, "...but now I know you can't pull that again."

Kaito's eyes flared, "What makes you think that?!"

Kaito crouched down, his muscles tensed as he prepared to spring into action toward Hatoshi.

Hatoshi's grin stretched wider, a glint of anticipation in his eyes. "Because you'll go down in...3...2..."

Kaito's heart raced as he braced himself. Then he propelled himself upward just as Hatoshi calmly counted down, "1."

As Kaito soared through the air suddenly his senses were overwhelmed by a jarring impact.

His body convulsed, and he felt himself tumbling helplessly, shocked and confused.

"What?" he managed to utter weakly before darkness enveloped him, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Misuki's eyes widened in horror, her voice shrill with panic, 'Kaito!'

She dissolved the water bubble around her, leaving them exposed

She tried to rush towards him, but her body froze, her feet rooted to the spot.

Her hands twitched as if trying to move, but her body refused to obey. 'Why can't I move and help him?!' She thought, 

'Why!'

'Wh...' her thought trailed off, her eyes fixed on Kaito's pale face.

Hatoshi's sneer twisted his face, his eyes gleaming with cruel triumph.

"He's filled with holes and lost a lot of blood,"

"He was reckless with his body, "

"I'm surprised that he beat Kenshiro"

"But this was the outcome of that"

'Come on, move!' Mizuki thought, her fist clenched in anger, 

He raised his hand, Black smoke swirling around his fingers.

"There's a chance that he'll survive it... "

"But it's best I kill him now...",

The smoke swirled through the air like tendrils dashing down toward Kaito's body

'Kaito!' Mizuki yelled in her thoughts

'Can my threads reach him in time' Toru thought as he stretched out his hand, 

'Why can't I move!? ' Mizuki cried out in her thought, 

'I can't save him!'

'Kaito!'

Yukiko dashed past Mizuki, her eyes blazing with anger, her fists clenched at her sides.

Misuki's eyes darted towards her, surprise etched on her face, 'Yukiko?!'

"Frostbite Shards," Yukiko shouted, Immediately a flurry of razor-sharp ice shards materialized around her, glinting like a thousand tiny knives.

She hurled them at the smoke, piercing the smoke tendrils. The shards hurtled toward Hatoshi, their frozen tips aimed straight at his heart.

Hatoshi's eyes widened in shock as the shards pierced his skin, his arm freezing in place.

"Huh?! Who's she?!" he exclaimed, his gaze darting towards Yukiko.

He stared at his hand in horror, his mind reeling as his skin turned a frosty blue.

'My hand is freezing?!' he thought.

As the cold spread, Hatoshi's body began to fade into smoke, his form dissolving like mist in the sun.

"So someone else is still standing" he muttered, his voice barely audible.

Yukiko stood tall, her chest heaving with exertion.

"Don't you get close to him!" she warned, her voice low and deadly.