Tota stands

After Tota gets the attention of Nubuki, memories of a conversation with his mother start playing in his mind. This is around the time Tota turned six but was still stuck in the house the Frinstion gang forced him and his mother to be in.

In Tota's room, Sarah is currently reading a book about a journalist trying to discover the secrets of a cave.

"The journalist picked up the rock with strange writing and scanned it up and down."

As she reads, the young Tota taps her on the shoulder so he can ask a question.

"Yes, Tota?"

"Oh well, Mommy. I was just wondering."

"Yes, what is it? I'm all ears."

"What was my father like?"

"Oh, your father."

"Well, I know you said he's on a faraway job and he will be back one day, but I still have no idea what he looks like or what he's like, so I was just wondering."

"Oh, I see. I guess I haven't talked a lot about your father."

Sarah closes the book and faces Tota.

"Well, if you're wondering what your father is like, I'll tell you."

As she speaks, the events that made them slaves start to play in her mind.

"Your father was brave—way braver than anyone. He would fight for those he cared about, even if that meant putting his life on the line."

"Woah really?"

"Yes! Crazy story: when we first met, I was getting harassed by these men, and your father came in to save me!"

"Wow, really, my dad's so cool!"

"Yeah, he is. I miss him so much!"

"But mommy?"

"???"

"You said he would put his life on the line, but does that mean he wasn't scared of anything?"

Sarah put her hand on her mouth and started giggling.

"What's so funny?"

"Your dad wasn't brave at all; he was always scared for his life. That situation where your dad stood up for me"

"Yeah!"

"Those guys beat him up so bad that he started crying!"

"What!"

Sarah laughs after seeing Tota's face go from happy to disappointed.

"Don't be too bummed out! Your dad might not have been a fighter or some cool dude with all the answers, but he knew it was better to stand for what's right than just sit on the sidelines and watch."

"Well, Dad doesn't sound that cool when you put it like that."

"Hehe, it's not about being cool, Tota, or, well, at least to your father. All your father wanted was to live with a clear conscience, and if he sat there and watched bad things happen, it would bother him forever. Which is why I love him."

"Well, I hope I get to meet Dad one day so he can teach me how to be brave too!"

"Hehe, I'm sure you will!"

After remembering this conversation with his mother, Tota looks Nubuki directly in the eyes, despite his fear of him.

"So, Tota, what have you come here for?"

After hearing that question, Tota starts to think to himself.

"I can't stop shaking! He could kill me right now, but I need to do something or Kage will die!"

Nubuki continues pushing his foot onto Kage's head.

"Stop!"

"And why should I, Tota? You won't do anything about it because you have no power to do anything."

Tota looks at Kage, who is currently trying his hardest to not get his head crushed by Nubuki. When he looks into Kage's fierce eyes, Tota remembers a few words from him.

"It's time for you to stop being a bitch!"

After remembering these words, Tota punches himself in the cheek. Tota then proceeds to spit a tooth out of his mouth. Kage's eyes opened wide after seeing the huge bruise Tota left on his cheek.

"Tota!"

Tota starts walking towards Nubuki.

"Power this, power that! That's all I've heard for the past ten years! I'm too weak, you say! That was your excuse for killing my parents—your excuse for killing my best friend! Your excuse for ruining my life since birth!"

Tears of anger start to slide down Tota's face.

"I'm done listening to a heartless bastard like you!"

Nubuki stops using the flex technique on his leg.

"So you choose to stand against me even after I took mercy on you after your last betrayal."

"That wasn't mercy!"

Nubuki takes his foot off Kage's head and stands in front of Tota.

"I let you live after your mother's betrayal and even let you live after you tried to escape from the city. I've treated you better than other slaves, even though you are weak. What about that isn't mercy."

"No, you didn't give me mercy; what you gave me was hell and kept me weak by making me believe the power was everything, but Kage opened my eyes. He made me truly understand what my mother was trying to tell me that day. The only way to reach my dream of being a journalist is to break free!"

Tota wipes his tears and stops shaking.

"So how about you go die in the worst way possible, you monster?"

"I see"

Nubuki lifts his fist and makes a motion to punch Tota. As Nubuki's fist gets closer to Tota's head, he says something to himself.

"Well, I guess I'm going to die, but at least I can die knowing I'm free!"

Tota closes his eyes with a satisfied expression on his face. Tota suddenly falls to the ground, and he opens his eyes. When Tota opens his eyes, he sees Kage, who has caught Nubuki's punch, with a smile on his face.

"Kage!"

While Kage once again confronts Nubuki, Mr.Mink, who has Unknown on his back, walks into the room under their fight.

"So is this the room Selena was talking about?"

Mr.Mink looks up and sees a bunch of holes in the ceiling. Through one of the holes, he sees Kage holding Nubuki's fist.

"It seems the battle is still going."

Mr.Minks puts Unknown on the wall and looks through the hole.

"Let's see if Kage can put this win in the bag."

Back on the roof, Tota is still shocked after seeing Kage protect him from Nubuki.

"Well said, Tota! Maybe you really aren't a bitch!"

"Move out of my way, Kage, so I can punish my slave accordingly!"

"Haha, wow, even Tota made you lose your composure! I think I found the real bitch here!"

Kage pushes Nubuki off of him and then instantly gets into a strong fighting stance.

"Thanks Tota! Since you distracted Nubuki, I was able to get enough time to not only drain more energy from him, but I was also able to get enough time to expand my OGI tank again. If it wasn't for you, I would have definitely died just now, so once again, thank you for the help."

Kage uses the accelerate technique to get in front of Nubuki.

"You said you wanted to be a journalist, right? Well, I'm going to destroy this guy so that dream can come true! So sit tight, Tota!"

With the flex technique applied, Kage punches Nubuki in the face.

"You heard that, Nubuki; I'm going to take you down!"

Kage sends multiple energy beams at Nubuki. Nubuki blocks all the beams of energy by causing an explosion in front of them before they can get close to them.

"You still underestimate me, Kage."

Nubuki uses the accelerate technique to get next to Kage. Kage quickly puts up an energy barrier to defend against Nubuki's punch.

"That won't stop me."

Inside the barrier, an explosion happens on Kage's left, causing him to smack into the right side of the barrier.

"Shit, his power can be used in my barrier!"

Kage puts down his barrier but is instantly met with a punch to the face. The punch leaves his ears ringing.

"I still need to deal with those explosions before I will be able to beat him!"

Kage looks up and once again notices Nubuki with his eyes closed.

Kage gets up and, while rushing at Nubuki, starts thinking to himself.

"Focusing so much OGI into my eyes and ears takes too much energy, so I will use my ears alone, even though my reaction might be slower."

Nubuki opens his eyes and instantly sees Kage rushing towards him. Nubuki stomps on the rooftop with the flex technique applied to his leg. This causes Kage to fall as he runs. As he falls, an explosion happens under him, causing him to go flying into the sky.

"Shit, I have to use energy jet before it's too late!"

Before Kage can even react, Nubuki jumps into the air and grabs him by the leg. Nubuki throws Kage onto the rooftop and uses an explosion to send him flying downward.

"Ouch, my ba—"

Nubuki slams both of his feet onto Kage's chest, breaking multiple bones.

"Ahh!"

"You might be stronger now, but you're still weak."

Despite the pain, Kage looks up at Nubuki with a smirk on his face.

"You know, after fighting you for a while, I think I finally figured out your power."

Kage releases a burst of energy from his body, causing Nubuki to go flying off of him.

"That power of yours comes from your eyes, doesn't it?"

Nubuki lands on the ground and looks at Kage, who has stood back up.

"You have the power to clump oxygen together and cause it to explode anywhere you look, but the power is limited to whatever you see! Which is why you haven't exploded my insides yet because you can't see them!"

"I'm failing to see how that information will help you."

Kage starts to throw energy beam after energy beam at Nubuki. Nubuki blocks the energy beams with explosions.

"Who the fuck said I was done talking?"

Kage jumps out of the way of an incoming explosion and continues throwing energy beams.

"If I just keep throwing energy beams at you, it will be impossible to defend with explosions and attack with them at the same time."

Nubuki jumps out of the way of one of Kage's energy beams.

I can still dodge, so now what?"

Nubuki looks back to where he last saw Kage but notices that he's no longer there.

"???"

Nubuki looks up and sees Kage using energy jet to stand in the sky.

"This one is new, but it does take a lot of energy."

Kage starts using energy jet to spin himself around at top speeds in the sky.

"What is this foolishness?"

Before Nubuki can start using his powers, Kage flips upside down while still spinning.

"Energy meteor shower!"

Huge energy beams start raining from the spinning Kage.

Nubuki jumps out of the way of the first energy beam but gets hit by two other ones.

"I made this move impossible to dodge!"

The first beam Nubuki dodged turns around and hits him.

"What!"

"I told you it was impossible to dodge!"

Kage starts to spin faster, causing more huge energy beams to rain from him. Nubuki, unable to dodge all of the beams, started using explosions to block them from hitting him, but even with that effort, some of the beams are still hitting him.

"This attack is taking everything to defend against."

Nubuki attempts to use another explosion to block another beam but freezes. Nubuki closes his eyes, and at the same time, Kage, while still spinning, starts flying directly towards him.

Tota, watching this happen, thinks to himself, "Kage is actually going to win!"

When Nubuki opens his eyes, he sees Kage speeding towards him.

"!!!"

"The third thing I noticed while fighting you! Every time you continuously use those explosions, you get to a point where you close your eyes. That right there tells me you can't use those explosions infinitely. So I knew spamming you with attacks that force you to use explosions would eventually give me an opening to hit you with a strong enough attack to take you down!"

Nubuki looks at the approaching Kage with a stern expression on his face.

"Yes, you're right; I still need a few seconds to use another explosion. You have won this battle, Kage."

A cut-in-half barrier made out of energy forms around Kage.

"It's time to show you the improved energy rocket!"

The constant blast of energy coming out of Kage's feet increases, causing Kage to speed towards Nubuki even faster. Kage starts to spin even faster.

"Take this Nubuki!"

"Well, it seems I won't become the king of the underworld any time soon, Des."

Kage slams into Nubuki's body with energy rocket. The energy rocket sends Nubuki flying down the mansion.

"Rahhh!"

Kage slams Nubuki through every floor until he reaches the mansion's entrance. Kage slams Nubuki onto the mansion's bottom floor and leaves a bloody, twisted-up wound on his stomach. Kage stands up over Nubuki, who is currently knocked out cold.

"And...that is...payback for...last time..you bastar—"

Out of exhaustion, Kage passes out on the ground.

At the top of the mansion, Mr.Mink looks through the hole Kage left with Nubuki's body.

"Damn, that was a pretty strong attack. I think I did a pretty good job preparing him for this battle."

On the roof, Tota also looks down the hole Kage made, and tears of joy start sliding down his face.

"He really did it! Kage beat Nubuki!"

Memories of all the pain Tota has been through since birth started playing in his mind.

"Thank you, Kage!"

The battle between Kage and Nubuki ends with Kage as the winner.

Chapter 74 end