Yin and Yang
Jack and Red reached the field of glass. The city around them, blood-soaked buildings, dead innocents in every direction. They reached a long brick road, with glassy shards spread apart, with human sculptures, clear like ice, rigid like statues.
"Are we in Hell?" (Jack)
"No... This is the end..." (Red)
A thunderous clap echoed across the destroyed landscape. They turned to the sky as an X-Class monster with feathered wings plummeted to the earth below.
Eurus.
"Eurus is here, humans!" (Pan)
Jack and Red jumped back. They swung around hiding behind rubble, ready to fight. Red immediately placed her hands into a traingle.
"Don't run... I have questions-" (Eurus)
She summoned her most powerful Torii Gate.
"Gate of God!" (Red)
The gate fell from the heavens. Crashing down on the world of glass. Shattering a thousand barriers, a thousand words, a thousand feathers.
It stood fifteen feet high, its thick golden pillars towering over the city, creating an invisible force restricting the X-Class from moving.
"Now... Jack...!" (Red)
She fell back on a bed of shards, her body unable to move, unable to think, she had used up all her magic.
Jack ran over to her. He carried her to a more suitable area hidden from danger.
"Stay here. I'll deal with this one..." (Jack)
He turned back to the X-Class Monster trapped in Red's God Gate.
Eurus was furious, its body stiff and still, unable to move under the large gate towering over it.
"Damn humans! Always so tricky! Volcan... Died to you humans...! Volcan hated you, humans...! Volcan just wanted The Competitor." (Eurus)
Jack held out his hands. His magic coursing through his veins. He looked at the X-Class Monster. Its feathered body, like an eagle caught in the wind. With one glance he immediately knew he was at a disadvantage. That his regular magic wouldn't work against an opponent that couldn't fight back. That he was powerless.
He held out his two hands.
He focused on his training.
Yin and Yang.
Black and white. Pure energy appeared on Jack's hands. His right black, his left white. Pure energy that flowed out like smoke.
"This Competitor you talk about. What is it?" (Jack)
Eurus tried to move its feathered body but it was stuck, restricted by the invisible force emanating from the Torii Gate high above.
"The Competitor is the pinnacle of magic and monster. A being opposite of pure magic." (Eurus)
"Opposite of pure magic...?" (Jack)
Jack stepped forward. His hands glowing in black and white smoke.
He thought for a second. His own grand ideals in his head. All he could think about was one thing. His power, his weakness, his purpose, why he fought against those monsters for all those years in the forest.
"Am I The Competitor?!" (Jack)
Eurus laughed out loud, its face curling between its white shining feathers.
"No-no-no, Human. The Competitor is no Sorcerer. They are the opposite of pure magic. You Sorcerers can use magic, you are not opposite magic, you are anomalies, takers of our pure power." (Eurus)
Jack stepped closer. His right fist extended out. His left fist extended out. Black and white.
He touched the immobilized X-Class Monster on its angelic feathered forehead. It's small animal like beak sticking from its rough skin. It squawked and squeaked out.
"My holy feathers protect me. No matter how hard you try, you humans will never break through." (Eurus)
Jack closed his eyes.
"Yin and Yang!" (Jack)
He held out his two fists, he tapped them together.
Black and white, became one. Yin and Yang.
He put the two together. Forming a spiral. Around his two fists, his one fist, his one punch.
He pulled his arm back. The black and white smoke coming along for the ride. The spiral spinning, in unison, in pure harmony.
He focused his mind on the training. All that he learned from Colt, from Yaku, from Bob, from all the friends he made, from all the friends he could lose.
He punched.
Smack!
---
"Jack, now that you've got your basics down. Ya gotta learn to adapt it. Like with my flying. All I can do is control gravity with my basic purest magic, but if I manipulate it, use it on myself, then I can make myself fly. It's like re-adapting your own magic. Creating a whole nothing skill. And not many can do this. Only those who have their magics restricted can. Like you, me, and Toby, I think." (Colt)
Jack looked at his right hand.
He summoned his magic into it, creating a fist of black smoke, a fist of white smoke.
"What now?" (Jack)
"Try... Try thinking outside the box." (Colt)
He looked at his Yin and Yang energy. The two sides. He held them out. One hand black, one hand white.
"It was weird... My Yin and Yang. They've always been separated. Always opposite of eachother. My Yin and Yang... But I've read a couple of books about it. Aren't they opposite and equal at the same time? So why aren't mine together? Why isn't my Yin and Yang together." (Jack)
He looked into his memories, his blocked path. He kept trying to get past it. To get to his real power. His real magic. His level two, his level three.
But he couldn't reach past the barrier. He couldn't break past. He was stuck. Stuck and stuck. Again and again. Always trying to find another way out. Another way to use his magic. His magic... Another way... It clicked!
"I get it!" (Jack)
The power he already had, the magic he already had, the life he already had. His friends. His fun. The time they spent together. Relaxing. Talking. Avoiding eachother. All of it was now! Not in the past.
He put Yin and Yang together.
"Good-good shit! That's more like it. Now do something cool with it or something?" (Colt)
He raised his black and white fist up high. He punched forward.
Nothing happened.
He punched again, and again, and again, but nothing happened. Nothing amazing happened. The two forces wouldn't work together, the black Yin wouldn't release, and the white Yang wouldn't absorb.
It was just pure energy. Pure Yin and Yang magic.
"Put more oomph in your punch!" (Colt)
Jack punched harder. He punched the walls. The floor, the ceiling, the air, he punched everything but nothing seemed to come out. Nothing seemed to happen. Nothing worked.
For the next two days, Jack tried everything he could, but this mysterious new power wouldn't work, they just wouldn't work together.
---
Jack punched the X-Class Monster.
He had nothing else up his sleeve. Nothing like Red or Emma or Yaku or all the other First-Class Captains. All he had was this mysterious new ability. All he had was him now or never. All he had were the people waiting for him on the other side.
Yin and Yang.
Life and death.
One and two.
Equal and opposite.
They must exist and coexist and not exist at all.
Smack!
Jack punched the X-Class Monster Eurus in the head.
The Yin and Yang coursed across the holy feathers. It coursed across Jack's entire body. His entire soul. The two connected. Man and Monster.
Eurus exploded! Its head exploding into a million stars. Holy white feathers in all directions. Monster blood shot into the dark purple sky.
Jack fumbled back, his body felt weird, like a million pins and needles scattered across his skin.
He looked at his hand. His black and white magic.
"What did I..." (Jack)
The monster's blood fell back to earth. Coating Jack in a layer of red.
"Wait! Red!" (Jack)
He ran to Red, feeling her pulse. It was weak.
Humans and monsters.
One and the same.
Equal and opposite.
Yin and Yang.
Jack was the opposite of Eurus
Eurus was the opposite of Jack.
Humans are the opposite of Monsters.
Monsters are the opposite of Humans.
The Competitor is the opposite of magic.
---
[X-Class Monster, Eurus] [Dead]
[X-Class Monster, Volcan] [Dead]
[X-Class Monster, Phanes] [Incapacitated]
[First-Class Sorcerer, Marry] [Dead]
[First-Class Sorcerer, Mato] [Dead]
[First-Class Sorcerer, Red] [Incapacitated]
[Fourth-Class Sorcerer, Yaku] [Incapacitated]
[Black Masked Man] [Dead]
[Green Masked Man] [Dead]
[Turquoise Masked Man] [Dead]
[Red Masked Woman] [Escaped]
[White Masked Man] [Unknown]
[Frankenstein] [Escaped]
---
"Ha! Funny... No one could have seen this coming... The games tied! Now who's gonna win?" (Frankenstein)