CHAPTER 19: GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE

Two hours felt like two minutes.

Rin sat in the medical tent trying to process what he’d just watched, Fiona had compressed a human being into something the size of a basketball, just casually murdered someone on live television without even blinking.

And now he had to fight her.

’She’s going to try to kill me too.’

[Probability assessment: 87%]

[Fiona Treacher demonstrates sociopathic tendencies]

[Previous surrender was tactical evaluation]

[She now understands your baseline capabilities]

’So what’s my move here?’

[Recommendation: Do not allow her to establish gravitational control]

[Maintain distance]

[Strike decisively before she can react]

’You want me to kill her first.’

[I want you to survive]

Joy paced back and forth in front of him, she’d been doing that for the last thirty minutes, nervous energy radiating off her in waves.

"Okay so here’s what I’m thinking," she said, turning to face him. "You go in fast, hit her with everything you’ve got before she can set up, don’t give her time to create those gravity wells or whatever the fuck that was."

"That’s the plan."

"Good, because if you try to fight defensively she’s going to crush you into paste." She ran her hands through her pink hair. "God I can’t believe they’re letting her continue after that, she literally murdered someone, there should be consequences."

"It’s the exam, accidents happen."

"That wasn’t an accident, Rin, that was execution, she knew exactly what she was doing." Joy sat down next to him. "Promise me something."

"What?"

"If you get in trouble out there, if it looks bad, surrender immediately, don’t try to be a hero, just tap out."

"I can’t do that."

"Why not?"

"Because I need to advance, need to get licensed, need to get strong enough to..." He trailed off, realizing he was about to say too much.

"Strong enough to what?"

"Nothing, just, I can’t lose."

Joy studied his face, seemed to see something there that made her expression soften. "This is about Leo isn’t it, about what happened at the raid."

Rin didn’t respond but his silence was answer enough.

"Look, I get it," she said quietly. "You want revenge, want to kill whatever that thing was that murdered your best friend, but you can’t do that if you’re dead, so please, if it gets too dangerous, surrender."

"I’ll keep it in mind."

"That’s not a promise."

"It’s all you’re getting."

She sighed but didn’t push further, just handed him another water bottle. "Drink something, stay hydrated, your body’s been through hell today."

He drank, the water tasted metallic but he finished the whole bottle anyway.

The viewing screens showed Match 7 starting, some guy with wind manipulation versus a girl who could manipulate sound waves, it was actually pretty cool watching wind clash against compressed air vibrations, lasted almost ten minutes before the wind guy won by creating a vacuum that made the sound manipulator pass out.

"Match 8 in five minutes!" The announcement came through.

Rin stood up, rolled his shoulders, tried to get his body ready for what was coming.

Joy grabbed his hand. "Hey, whatever happens out there, you did good, made it this far, that’s more than most people can say."

"Thanks."

"And Rin? Don’t die, I still need a training partner for next week."

He managed a small smile. "I’ll do my best."

The walk to the tunnel felt longer than it should have, every step heavy, the weight of what was about to happen pressing down on him.

Fiona was already in the arena when he arrived, standing perfectly still in the center, her expression blank, waiting for a bus rather than about to fight someone.

She saw him, tilted her head slightly. "You came, I wasn’t sure you would after that last display."

"Kind of have to, it’s the exam."

"True, but you could’ve forfeited, avoided this entirely." She took a few steps closer. "So why didn’t you?"

"Because I made a promise."

"To your dead friend?" She said it so casually, discussing the weather. "I watched the footage from the Jin raid, saw what happened to Leo, that thing that killed him was impressive, you want to be strong enough to face it don’t you."

Rin’s jaw clenched. "Yeah."

"Then show me." Fiona’s expression finally changed, excitement flickering across her face. "Show me what you’re really capable of, not the half measures you’ve been using, I want to see your actual power."

The referee stepped between them looking nervous, probably remembering what happened in Fiona’s last match.

"Standard rules apply," her voice shook slightly. "Fight until surrender or incapacitation, try not to, please don’t kill each other, I really don’t want to fill out that paperwork again, fighters ready?"

"Ready."

"Always ready."

"Begin!"

Rin moved first this time, didn’t give Fiona a chance to set up, channeled fracture energy into his legs, launched himself forward faster than he’d ever moved before.

He closed the distance in half a second, fist already coming around aimed at her head.

Fiona raised one hand, gravity shifted, Rin’s punch slowed mid-swing moving through syrup.

"Too obvious." She grabbed his wrist, twisted, threw him across the arena with enhanced gravitational force.

He hit the ground hard, rolled, came up already gathering fracture energy for a ranged attack.

Purple bolts shot toward her, three of them, different angles.

She waved her hand, the projectiles curved, flew past her, crashed into the walls.

"You’ll need to do better than that." Fiona pressed both hands together, the air between them shimmered, gravity concentrated into a single point.

A miniature black hole formed, pulling everything toward it, Rin felt the tug, his feet sliding across the floor no matter how hard he tried to resist.

’She’s going to compress me like the last girl.’

[Correct assessment]

[Recommendation: Disrupt the gravitational field]

[Release fracture energy in omni-directional burst]

He’d done this before against her, it worked once but she was ready for it now, probably had a counter.

Didn’t matter, he was out of options.

Rin released everything, fracture energy exploding outward from his body in every direction, purple light flooding the arena.

The gravitational field collapsed, the black hole dissipated, Fiona stumbled backward from the force.

But she recovered immediately, grinned. "There it is, the real power, let’s see how much you’ve got."

She slammed both hands down, the entire arena floor rippled, gravity going completely wrong, up became down, left became right, Rin’s inner ear screamed trying to process the shift.

He fell upward, crashed into what used to be the ceiling, Fiona was standing on what used to be a wall, perfectly balanced.

"Disorienting isn’t it," she said. "Most people can’t handle spatial manipulation, their brains just shut down."

Rin gathered fracture energy, tried to anchor himself to something solid, created a platform under his feet.

It worked, he had stable footing now even though gravity was still completely messed up.

"Interesting solution." Fiona walked along the wall toward him. "But you’re still thinking three-dimensionally, let me show you what happens when you add a fourth."

She made a gesture, reality itself seemed to fold, Rin felt pressure from directions that shouldn’t exist, his body being pulled in ways that made no geometric sense.

Pain exploded through every nerve, his vision went white, blood vessels bursting from the impossible forces.

’I can’t, this is too much.’

[Warning: Physical integrity compromised]

[Body cannot sustain multi-dimensional gravitational stress]

[Recommendation: Counter with fracture synchronization at 50% output]

’That’ll reveal too much.’

[You will die otherwise]

Fair point.

Rin stopped fighting the gravity, instead he embraced it, let the fracture energy flow through his entire body, synchronized with the warped space around him.

The pain stopped.

He could feel the gravitational fields now, could sense how Fiona was manipulating them, could see the weak points in her control.

He reached out with fracture energy, touched one of those weak points, disrupted it.

The multi-dimensional gravity collapsed, everything snapping back to normal orientation.

Fiona’s eyes went wide. "How did you, nobody should be able to counter that."

"I’m not nobody." Rin channeled fracture energy into both hands, compressed it, shaped it into something new.

Purple blades formed, extensions of his fists, solidified fracture energy that hummed with power.

He moved, faster than before, the energy enhancing every muscle, every motion.

Fiona tried to increase his weight, tried to slow him down, but he absorbed the gravitational energy as fast as she could apply it, converted it into more power.

His blade came around, she barely dodged, the fracture energy cutting through the air where her head had been.

"You’re adapting," she said, actually sounding impressed. "Learning my patterns mid-fight, that’s, that’s actually exciting."

She created multiple gravity wells simultaneously, scattered around the arena, each one pulling in different directions.

Rin ignored them, focused on Fiona herself, charged straight through the gravitational chaos.

She made a crushing gesture, tried to compress him the same way she’d done to her last opponent.

He released fracture energy in a sphere around his body, the crushing force hit the barrier, couldn’t penetrate.

They were face to face now, inches apart.

"Show me more," Fiona whispered.

Rin’s blade came up toward her throat, she leaned back, created a gravity well right between them that pushed them apart.

They both flew backward, hit opposite walls, the impact cracking concrete.

Rin got up, Fiona got up, they stared at each other across the arena.

"You’re holding back," she said. "I can tell, you’ve got more power than this, why aren’t you using it?"

"Because I don’t want to kill you."

"How considerate." She laughed. "But I’m not holding back, so you better start taking this seriously."

The gravity in the entire arena multiplied, fifty Gs, a hundred, Rin’s bones creaked under the pressure, the concrete under his feet shattered, he dropped to one knee.

’She’s going to crush me into the floor.’

[Recommendation: Release fracture synchronization limit]

[Go to 100%]

[Eliminate the threat]

’I can’t, that’ll, everyone will see.’

[Then you will die]

[Choose]

The pressure increased, two hundred Gs, Rin’s vision started going dark, blood trickling from his nose, his ears, his eyes.

He thought about Leo, about that promise, about Kazriketh still out there somewhere.

He couldn’t die here, not in some exam, not before keeping his word.

’Fuck it.’

He released the limit, let fracture synchronization go to full power.

Purple light erupted from every pore, his eyes glowed, his hair lifted from the energy, the arena floor beneath him disintegrated.

The crushing gravity stopped affecting him, he stood up despite the hundreds of Gs pressing down, walked toward Fiona who was staring at him with something between fear and excitement.

"There you are," she breathed. "The real you."

Rin gathered all that fracture energy, compressed it into his fist, drew back.

Fiona created the strongest gravitational field she could manage, poured everything into it, tried to stop him.

The energy met, gravity versus fracture, reality screaming from the collision.

Then Rin pushed through, his fist breaking the gravitational barrier, continuing toward Fiona’s chest.

She couldn’t dodge, couldn’t defend, could only watch as the attack came.

At the last second, Rin redirected, his fist passing inches from her heart, slamming into the wall behind her instead.

The wall exploded, the barrier beyond it cracked, emergency shields activated to contain the blast.

Fiona stood frozen, realizing how close she’d come to death.

Rin pulled back the fracture energy, let it fade to manageable levels, stood there breathing hard.

"I win," he said quietly.

Fiona looked at him, looked at the destroyed wall, looked back at him.

Then she smiled, raised her hand. "I surrender."

The referee, who’d been hiding behind a barrier during the entire exchange, cautiously emerged. "Winner, Rin Matsuda by surrender!"

The crowd was dead silent, nobody knew how to react to what they’d just witnessed.

Then someone started clapping, slowly, others joined, within seconds the entire arena was erupting in applause.

Rin barely heard it, the exhaustion hitting him so hard his legs gave out.

Joy caught him before he fell. "Holy shit, holy shit, you did it, you’re in the top ten!"

"Yeah."

"You’re going to Stage 3!"

"Yeah."

"Rin you’re glowing, your eyes are still lit up, are you okay?"

He wasn’t okay, his body felt destroyed, every muscle screaming, his bones aching, his head pounding.

But he’d won.

He’d kept fighting, kept moving forward, got one step closer to his promise.

Medical staff rushed over, started scanning him with devices that beeped frantically.

"His vitals are all over the place," one of them said. "Heart rate at 180, blood pressure critical, mana channels are, wait this doesn’t make sense."

"Get him to intensive care, now!" Another doctor ordered.

They loaded him onto a stretcher, Joy walked alongside holding his hand.

"You scared the shit out of me," she said. "When that gravity hit, when you started bleeding, I thought you were done."

"Sorry."

"Don’t apologize, just, just rest okay, you earned it."

They wheeled him through the corridors, past other fighters, past officials, past cameras that were still recording everything.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, Joy pulled it out, checked the message.

"It’s from Ashford," she said. "He wants to see you immediately after medical clears you."

"Of course he does."

"Rin, what you did out there, that purple energy, that was, that was way beyond secondary ability level, what exactly are you?"

He looked at her, at the genuine concern mixed with fear in her eyes.

"I don’t know," he admitted. "But I’m about to find out."

The medical bay doors closed behind them.

Outside, the exam continued, other fighters battling for their spots, but Rin had made it.

Top ten.

Stage 3 tomorrow.

Then licensing.

Then hunting.

Then Kazriketh.

One step at a time, just how Leo said, impossible things done by impossible people.

The fracture energy finally faded completely, his eyes returning to normal, the purple light dying down.

But he could still feel it there, waiting, ready to be called upon again.

Ready for whatever came next.