The smell of charred earth flooded his senses as Daisuke was slammed into the earth. A cloud of dark ash erupted from under him from the force, and then just as quickly swirled away as Len Sosu hoisted his body around as if it weighed as much as a pillow. One heave later and Daisuke came to a crashing stop as his body was flung straight into a hard tree trunk. What little air he had managed to get back into his lungs quickly escaped once again.

“So weak!” The crispy looking Len Sosu was beside the staggering Daisuke in an instant, and planted another fist right into the man’s ribcage. “Is this all the Ghost of Garion has?” The impact of the blow shook some of the debris off Daisuke, leaving a small human shaped cloud of dust as his actual body was knocked far away by another of Len Sosu’s blows. Each time the boy struck him more pieces of charred debris fell away from Len Sosu. The Sixeye’s detonation clearly damaged his outer layer of clothing but apart from a bit of reddened skin, Len Sosu looked as chipper as ever.

Mid-stagger Daisukre regained his footing and shifted his posture, but Len Sosu’s speed couldn’t be beat. A bare knee smashed into his head and sent him reeling backwards. “Come on, come on! This isn’t even a fight!” The boy’s cackling voice rose up over the still baking flames from Daisuke’s original surprise attack. His volume increased after every successfully landed strike. “You gotta do something, dude! I can’t tell an awesome war story if you just fall over and die!”

The smile across Len Sosu’s face didn’t fade one iota even as the target he mercilessly bore down on made a passing attempt at a block. Daisuke rose one arm to intercept the boy’s fist, which Len Sosu gladly sunk his strength into. The General’s eyes winced and his expression contorted as the force drove him to his knees. There weren’t even wounds across Len Sosu’s skin- an absurd impossibility the more Daisuke thought about it. The blast had even sent shards of the Sixeyes towards himself and grazed his body- how could the kid have avoided all the shrapnel at point blank range?

Another punch rattled his head and Daisuke nearly collapsed, but drew himself back at the last instant with a burst of wind pushing him away from Len Sosu’s oppressive assault. Was it a hallucination? A dream? In came another rattling kick followed by a simple right hook, obliterating Daisuke’s guard yet again and peeling his defenses even more. It felt hopeless, as if he were struggling against an opponent who simply willfully ignored the rules of reality and did what he pleased. How could you beat someone like that?

After a particularly nasty strike across the face, Daisuke tumbled again but stabilized himself as if preparing to counter. Excited that his opponent might now strike back Len Sosu put his own guard up in an almost playful way, as if he knew he couldn’t be harmed but wanted to keep the game going. Instead Daisuke just wiped his mouth off and spat.

“Is that it?” His words came out choppy because he could barely push out enough air to do so. “You know, one of my jutsu is invincibility. You could wail on me all day-”

“Oh. Oh!” Len Sosu snapped and looked upwards thoughtfully. “That’s right! They call you the Ghost because you can’t be touched. Dunno, dude, you seem pretty beat up. Maybe it’s time for a name change.”

Daisuke lurched but caught himself and stayed upright. Both of his arms were raised in defense now, as if that made any difference. “You’re an idiot, you know that? Just because you can move me around a bit doesn’t mean jack.” An unusually attentive Len Sosu looked down at the hunched Daisuke with just a little bit of curiosity. Were his blows landing?

Then that disgusting twinkle reappeared in Len Sosu’s eyes.

“Ah, aaaah, okay, yeah, dude, I get you.” Dropping all pretense of a fair fight Len Sosu scratched his nose to dislodge some more burnt debris. “I thought without your fancy metal fan you’d be useless, but your Divine Wind doesn’t disappoint, does it?” With an extra dose of contempt he bit his thumb nail and grinned. “You’re using air pockets to cushion the blows, aren’t you? Some kind of armor technique that protects and speeds you up?” A brief look of worry crossed Daisuke’s face, all but proving Len Sosu’s assertion. His enjoyment only grew more at the revelation. “Wow, really, dude? How many of those jutsu you claim to have are just you doing fancy magic tricks with the air?”

“Talk it up all you want, moron.” Daisuke sputtered. “You can’t punch through what you can’t see, can you? I’ve got you figured out.”

“Yeah, you really have me on the ropes!” Laughing, Len Sosu took a confident step forward. Daisuke shuffled back but his heels hit up against the roots of a massive tree. Now his back was literally to the wall, there would be no clean retreat this time. “Let’s just see if your hot air is any match for me. Time for the last round, kid!”

Shifting his weight slightly Len Sosu opted this time to go for quicker, less powerful jabs. Sure enough he noticed as each one drew closer to the haggard Daisuke, some imperceptible force diverted the force just enough to spare him the full brunt of the attack. How crafty! All those seemingly powerful blows Len Sosu had landed must have felt more like playful love taps, given how much of the impact was robbed by that air padding surrounding Daisuke. Nothing a little elbow grease couldn’t solve!

What had originally been at least nominally a fair fight devolved into nothing but a beatdown. Daisuke kept both his arms up to protect his head while Len Sosu finally braced himself and laid heavily into the motionless General. Each one of his punches blew out a chunk of air, which was quickly replaced by a new one as Len Sosu drew his fist back. He eventually settled into a left-right rhythm, replacing each strike with another and shortening the interval Daisuke could use to replenish his armor. There was after all a functionally infinite amount of air- Daisuke’s Divine Wind seemed to offer unlimited protection. All Len Sosu had to do was punch faster than it could come back, though! The speed and power of each of his strikes grew and soon so much air was being displaced with each thrust that the nearby smoke and airborne debris was drawn inwards. The free floating particles gave Len Sosu a clear vision of where Daisuke’s jutsu moved the air, like watching motes of dust swirl in a sunbeam. Behind Daisuke blasted each cloud of air that Len Sosu forcefully discharged and within seconds a huge, engine-exhaust like plume grew behind Daisuke. Bit by bit the air Len Sosu could see swirling around Daisuke grew thinner and thinner. It was working! He was shaving off the General’s ‘invincibility’ bit by bit!

Someone like Len Sosu didn’t need to care about every little detail like that, though. Instead as the climax drew nearer his attention fell to watching Daisuke’s focused expression. With each blow breaking through a bit more than the last his face changed from exertion to concern and finally to the wide-eyed panic of recognizing one’s imminent defeat. That was the only cue Len Sosu needed. With his own beaming, crazed grin he struck out with both fists at once, one above the other. This was less of a strike and more of one last push off the edge. An almost explosive impact peeled off the last of Daisuke’s protection as even the leaves in the tree overhead were blown off from Len Sosu’s might. The strength of the boy’s move even broke Daisuke’s guard and both his arms separated as if being pried open. Daisuke had nothing left.

Of course he had never stood a chance in the first place. Len Sosu still stood immaculate, apart from the chunks of burnt clothing still clinging to him. Not a hair out of place, not a bit of fatigue on his face! Rank was irrelevant- Agent or not, the boy could not be touched. Drawing back for a final swing to end the prolonged slugfest Len Sosu’s pupils grew from the euphoria rushing into his body. The dopamine high could be heard dripping from every word he roared with this attack. “I win!”

Daisuke’s expression seemed to mirror Len Sosu’s. The General’s eyes watched as the fist loomed over him like a meteor. His own lungs failed to give him enough breath to speak, but his expression said it all. It was a defeat, all right. The General’s jutsu didn’t have enough power to blow back Len Sosu. Who could possibly match such strength?

It was as easy a target as one could ask for. Completely open and wedged against that tree there was nowhere to dodge and no defense left. Len Sosu’s knuckles tore through the thin air with killing intent, sinking their bone pulping force right across...

...Daisuke’s nose. Like an uncle flicking his finger Len Sosu barely grazed Daisuke’s exposed face. It wasn’t a miss or a deflection. If there was one thing Len Sosu understood very well it was how far he could throw his punches. Had he been standing too far away? It was absurd- the two men had been close enough to hug, not hitting his target at this distance made no sense. Len Sosu didn’t think twice about it though. Instead he simply rebounded, throwing his other fist with the same lethal intent as the first. This time he didn’t catch anything at all. The distance between him and Daisuke had grown, despite neither of them having moved an inch.

That previous flood of euphoric emotion jolted with a shock of confusion. Alright, well, nothing he couldn’t adapt to! Len Sosu took a step forward, despite there logically being no reason why he should have to do that. He closed the distance again and launched another fist. Again it only grazed Daisuke’s weary face. He took two steps and swung again. A complete miss. Four long strides and an angry uppercut did nothing but shake loose more ashes clinging to his skin. What was happening simply didn’t register with the boy until it was too late.

Having been given literal breathing room, Daisuke finally managed to wheeze out his own response to Len Sosu’s earlier proclamation. “Enjoy your win, kid.”

Then with a snap, Len Sosu disappeared. It wasn’t quite that quiet though, as every leaf, twig, and loose rock in the area likewise seemed to completely vanish in an instant. No, to be more accurate, the lighter material had been leaving the whole time, not that Len Sosu would notice with the way he always stayed in his target’s face. Scoured off the earth the smaller debris had been sucked upwards and was only now joined by Len Sosu, whose body had been plucked up as one would do with an unwanted hair. The boy probably didn’t even understand why until he was so far up and away that Daisuke was nothing more than a speck on the horizon.

General Hashimoto Daisuke, though, must have known given the way his two arms clung on for dear life to the tree against his back. Fully braced himself the powerful suction force that blasted Len Sosu away in an instant couldn’t carry him off the same way. Instead he got to look up at Len Sosu’s own creation as the boy disappeared completely from sight. Directly behind where Len Sosu had stood moments ago was the force that had been pulling him back and finally away.

The darkened soot and smoke swirling through the forest painted a long, narrow, but winding funnel cloud stretching from the earth all the way to the heavens. It wasn’t quite as powerful as nature’s own cyclones, but with laser focus it’s spiralling torrent of power ripped through a small area right where the two soldiers had been duking it out. Every sound disappeared as its roaring force filled Daisuke’s ears while it passed overhead. Even the General was taken aback how powerful the thing was- it even ripped the bark off his tree! The force and fury of the tornado was something his Divine Wind simply couldn’t match. Daisuke couldn’t move enough air fast enough to make something so massive in scope and power.

Len Sosu, though, seemed more than able to move the heavens with his jutsu. The boy never seemed to care much about what happened to all the air he was displacing with his assault and Daisuke was more than willing to direct it somewhere more meaningful. It was an impossible intersection- the narrowest of lines to navigate, where Len Sosu’s incomprehensible power produced a feat of wind manipulation Daisuke could never have done himself. They might have made a good team in some other timeline.

In that one the situation provide quite a bit different though. The tornado ripped past Daisuke, sucking up another few feet worth of material before cooling off rapidly and eventually dissipating less than a minute later. His ears finally free of the howling mass of air Daisuke heard it start raining. No, not quite right. It was the sound of rain, but it was actually remnants of dislodged earth that now fell back down. The tornado’s force had only been sustained through all the power Len Sosu pumped into each of his wind-sundering blows, after all. Daisuke had nothing left to feed it with.

Even so the General kept his white-knuckled grip on the tree trunk. His eyes stared upwards at the still massive cloud of smoke that rose up from his forest fire, only slightly disturbed by the conjured wind storm. He needed to move. Everyone for miles would come see what could have caused such a natural disaster. It would be dangerous to stick around for long. Yet his legs didn’t want to move. Sweat dripped off him in grimy streams. Even his breathing remained disrupted.

It had been a while since Daisuke felt this way. Len Sosu, after all, hadn’t been beaten. The boy had only been flung...somewhere. Hopefully out to the open ocean, but Daisuke had no way of knowing. There were threats left on the island to worry about and he himself had just suffered an enormous expenditure just to escape. To put it bluntly, the situation had only gotten worse for him.

The soft sounds of falling debris were punctuated by a slow, deliberate clapping noise. Not a clapping noise. Actual, real, human caused clapping. A voice rivalling Len Sosu’s in smug self-assuredness reached out to Daisuke in a disgusting but familiar tone. “Very impressive, General Hashimoto Daisuke.” Sweeping his eyes around Daisuke couldn’t pinpoint where the man was, but his sixth sense for detecting scumbags let him know it was somewhere close. Motonubu didn’t even bother trying to hide.

“You seem to be in a bit of distress. Perhaps I can lend a hand?”