The arena floor trembled ever so slightly as magic saturated the air, thick with the anticipation of battle.
Vangeance's voice echoed across the coliseum. "The match is over when a competitor gives up or can no longer continue. We have a recovery mage on standby, so fight freely. Now, will the first competitors please step forward?"
Before anyone could even breathe—
"ME! ME!! I'll go first!" Saru's voice rang out, followed by the unmistakable sound of people being shoved aside.
A moment later, the boy in brown fur and mischief had burst into the center of the arena, arms flailing wildly as he pointed toward the captain's platform.
"If I win this, Yami, you better give me double snacks!"
Yami didn't even blink. He exhaled smoke from his cigarette and stared into space, unmoved.
Saru frowned. "Tch. Rude."
From the opposite end, his opponent entered the field—confident, polished, and radiating magical arrogance. A noble through and through.
The boy bowed neatly to the captains, earning a few approving nods, then turned sharply toward Saru with a look of disgust.
"Are you ready yet, monkey?" he asked, voice dripping with disdain.
Saru's answer was a wide grin and a casual thumbs-up. "Of course I am! You should attack first."
The noble huffed, straightening his fine robes. "Very well, then. I shall show you that you—stupid monkey—belong back in the jungle."
That got a few chuckles from the noble supporters in the crowd. Others nodded silently, as if already writing Saru off.
The match began.
The noble raised his grimoire in one smooth motion. The pages fluttered open with practiced precision.
"Crystal Lance Barrage!"
Glittering magic gathered into the air—shards of condensed crystal took form, floating like glassy javelins all around him. With a flick of his hand, the noble launched the first wave at Saru.
The crowd leaned forward.
CRACK—THWIP—ZING!
Saru wasn't there.
He was gone from his spot entirely, having leaned backwards so far he was nearly parallel with the ground. The first lance missed him by inches and struck the wall behind him with a sharp crack.
"Whoops~" Saru giggled, flipping backward in a smooth handstand.
Three more lances surged at him.
Saru cartwheeled. Twisted. Dropped to all fours and scampered beneath one like an actual monkey.
"Ooo! That one tickled my ear!"
"You little—!"
"Hey, hey, don't get mad!" Saru shouted cheerfully, sprinting in a circle around the noble. "You nobles are supposed to be graceful, right? But you're sweating already!"
The noble gritted his teeth and raised both hands. "Crystal Blade Rain!"
More crystalline daggers formed above, spinning rapidly in a deadly vortex before hurtling downward like shimmering meteors.
Saru didn't even blink.
He spun once on his heel, flipped backward, then slid across the arena like a kid playing on ice, letting the daggers crash into the stone around him in a storm of sparks and shattered light.
"Oooh, fancy light show! Can I clap now?"
The noble's jaw clenched. "STAND STILL, YOU FILTHY LITTLE—!"
But Saru wasn't listening. He was already behind him.
The monkey-boy crouched beside the noble's feet like a gremlin and tapped his shin.
"Boop."
"Wha—?"
"Hey, your boots are dusty. Wanna borrow my tail to polish them?"
The noble whirled around, red in the face, but Saru backflipped twice and stuck his tongue out.
From the sidelines, a wave of laughter rose from the participants.
Even a few other captains were smirking, though they kept it reserved.
But the nobles on the opposite end of the field were less amused. Their mutters darkened. Their brows furrowed.
The noble's rage boiled over.
"You DARE mock a noble of House Reivan?! You vermin! You dirty animal!" he shouted. "It's no surprise you ended up in the Black Bulls! That place is a freak show for failures! Trash. Every last one of you!"
The arena went quiet for a beat.
Saru stopped mid-step.
His grin vanished.
Yami finally opened one eye, watching now.
Saru looked up, his expression still calm—but his golden eyes had changed.
Gone was the cheerful mischief. Now they gleamed with a predator's stillness.
"...What did you say?" Saru asked, voice soft now.
The noble lifted his chin, emboldened. "You heard me. I said—"
But he didn't finish.
Because in the blink of an eye, Saru was right in front of him.
Not running. Not jumping.
Just there.
One finger poked the noble's chest.
"Say that again."
The noble flinched, startled by how close Saru suddenly was. With a grunt of alarm, he jumped backward, nearly tripping over his own robes.
Saru didn't follow.
He simply stood there, golden eyes half-lidded, expression unreadable—like someone staring at a speck of dirt too irrelevant to bother stepping on.
"You shouldn't have said that," Saru muttered.
The air around him shifted—no, quivered—as mana pulsed from his body like a quiet heartbeat. It wasn't loud, but it was deep, ancient in a way that seemed to hum through the bones of everyone watching.
His grimoire floated beside him, pages fluttering, glowing faintly with golden light.
From within the pages, something began to emerge.
A long, curved staff shimmered into existence—etched with ancient golden runes, radiant like a weapon crafted by the heavens themselves. The handle spun gently in the air until Saru reached out and gripped it with one hand.
A breathless silence fell over the arena.
"You insulting me is one thing," Saru said, voice steady. Cold. Detached. "But you do not insult my family."
He didn't shout.
He didn't snarl.
But every word felt like a judge's sentence.
"I don't take lightly to anyone who does that… be it noble…"
Saru raised the staff into the air.
"…or even the king."
Without another word, he turned, wound his arm back—
—and hurled the staff into the horizon with such force it cracked the air.
It disappeared in an instant. Just gone.
FWOOOM.
A thunderous sound echoed far in the distance, like the sky itself had just been punched.
The entire arena froze.
"What… the hell?" someone whispered.
The participants stood stunned. Many hadn't even seen the staff move.
Even the captains blinked in disbelief.
Except Yami.
Yami sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and muttered, "Here we go…"
Then, Finral started panicking.
"Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit—oh, no—no no no no no—"
"Kid—HEY!!" Yami stood up sharply, eyes flashing. "Don't you dare kill that damn noble!!"
But Saru didn't acknowledge him.
He simply lifted one hand toward the sky, eyes still cold, focused.
And whispered:
"Enlarge, Nyoi-bo."
At first, nothing happened.
Just a breath of wind.
Then—every captain stood.
Their chairs scraped stone. Grimoires fluttered.
Each one of them stared into the sky with stiffened jaws and wide eyes.
Even Jack, grinning only moments earlier, whispered under his breath, "Ohhh… shit."
From the stands, people noticed the sudden tension.
And then—
A shadow fell across the entire arena.
Gasps rippled through the crowd as hundreds of participants slowly turned their eyes skyward.
And what they saw…
A golden pillar.
No—a colossal golden pillar, large enough to blot out the sun, descending from the heavens like a divine punishment. Its length was impossible to measure. Its width could crush a mountain. The runes along its side burned like sunlight.
It was Nyoi-bo.
But enlarged.
To a cataclysmic size.
"RUUUUUUN!!" someone screamed.
Panic exploded.
Mages scrambled in every direction, slipping and shoving each other in blind terror. Finral opened portals for random civilians to escape, screaming the whole time. Even a few squadless nobles dropped their grimoires in pure fear.
On the arena floor, the noble boy—Saru's opponent—fell backward, legs giving out entirely.
He stared up at the descending monolith with bulging eyes.
And then he wet himself.
Dark stains spread through the front of his ornate trousers as his mouth opened and closed like a dying fish. His hands clawed uselessly at the ground as the shadow grew larger. He couldn't even scream.
Meanwhile, Saru rose into the sky.
His small body moved with the fluidity of a dancer, golden aura swirling around him.
And then—he grabbed the falling Nyoi-bo.
With one hand.
The impact halted instantly, causing a shockwave of wind to ripple outward.
Gasps.
Absolute silence.
He held it.
Held it.
And without hesitation, Saru pushed it downward—aiming it directly at the paralyzed noble below.
"You think you nobles are some kind of gods," Saru said, voice low and ringing across the sky, "always acting like you're better than everyone else."
The pillar moved again, descending faster.
"Now I'll show you…"
Saru's hand tightened around the golden shaft.
"…that you're nothing but an insect."
Just as the golden monolith neared the arena floor, threatening to crush everything beneath it in a burst of divine fury—
A blur of mana surged.
In an instant, every Magic Knight Captain leapt from the platform.
Charlotte, Fuegoleon, Nozel, Dorothy, Jack, even William Vangeance himself—all of them moved at once, flashing through the air like streaks of divine magic, grimoires open, spells ready to detonate mid-air.
Each of them stood beneath the descending Nyoi-bo, forming a semicircle. They weren't defending the noble boy—
They were protecting the entire arena.
Each spell flared to life, and for a brief second, the battlefield glowed with a kaleidoscope of power.
But before they could release even a spark—
"Don't."
The word cut through the chaos like a blade.
Everyone froze.
At the center of it all, Yami Sukehiro stood alone.
He hadn't drawn his sword.
He hadn't lifted a finger.
He simply stepped forward—right beneath the center of the pillar's shadow—his coat swaying in the wind, a cigarette dangling from his lips, unfazed by the massive weapon descending from the sky.
The other captains stared at him.
He didn't flinch.
"Get back," he said calmly to the others. "This ain't your fight."
"…Yami?" Charlotte whispered, her expression dark with concern.
Fuegoleon narrowed his eyes. "Are you serious?"
Jack snarled. "You're gonna get flattened, idiot!"
But Yami didn't move. He just looked up at the tiny figure floating in the sky.
And then he raised his voice—not with anger, not with command.
With trust.
"Saru."
The name echoed across the arena like a ripple.
Everyone froze—including Saru.
The golden-haired monkey boy hovered in the sky, hand still on the massive pillar. His eyes flicked down to Yami.
"You want to drop that thing?" Yami said, voice steady. "You'll have to take me out first."
Silence.
The Nyoi-bo pulsed, its pressure humming through the air like a god breathing.
Saru's fingers twitched.
He stared at Yami.
A confused, conflicted look filled his face—eyebrows furrowed, lips parted just slightly.
"Why…" Saru finally asked, his voice raw and low, "…would you stop me?"
The pillar remained suspended above the noble, trembling with barely restrained force.
"He insulted us," Saru said, louder now. "He insulted me. He insulted the Black Bulls."
His voice cracked.
"Why would you protect someone like him?!"
Yami exhaled slowly, smoke curling upward.
And then… he smiled.
That small, unreadable Yami smile.
"Because, dumbass…" he said.
"…if we only protected the people we liked, we wouldn't be any better than them."
Saru's breath caught in his throat.
"Letting that guy get crushed just 'cause he's a jerk?" Yami's voice dropped a little. "That ain't justice. That's just revenge dressed up fancy."
The other captains glanced at each other—expressions unreadable.
Yami kept going.
"You're strong, Saru. Scary strong. But power ain't about payback. It's about choosing who you are even when you could burn everything down."
A long silence followed.
The wind rustled through the arena, sweeping dust into the air.
Saru stared down at him, eyes wide. The glowing aura around him began to flicker—once, twice—
And then slowly, Nyoi-bo began to shrink.
The massive golden pillar reversed its growth, shrinking until it became a normal-sized staff again—spinning through the air before slamming into Saru's open hand with a soft thud.
Saru landed slowly.
Dust kicked up around his feet as he touched the ground, gaze never leaving Yami's.
The noble boy lay frozen behind him, still unable to move.
The captains relaxed, though none of them sheathed their grimoires just yet.
Charlotte's thoughts raced: He stopped. That amount of mana… and he stopped it, just like that? He could've crushed the entire arena if he hadn't.
Fuegoleon stared hard: So much raw power… from such a small body. That wasn't just magic—it was presence. He radiated authority like a royal. Maybe even more.
William's mind turned inward: He controls a power that doesn't seem native to this world. What are you really, Saru?
Jack licked his lips: "Heh. Now that's a brawl I want someday."
Even Nozel, while trying to act unaffected, glanced sideways at Saru with a drop of sweat sliding down his temple.
The participants slowly came back to their senses.
Whispers filled the air.
"…he's not human…"
"…he was going to crush the whole arena…"
"…and he stopped. Just like that…"
Yuno's eyes were still locked on Saru, calculating.
He's stronger than I thought. That wasn't even his full power. That staff… it came from his grimoire. But that pressure—it was like standing in front of a storm. Calm on the outside, but endless within.
And Asta, wide-eyed, clenched his fists.
"That guy… he's so cool!" he shouted. "He was gonna squash that jerk, but then he didn't! That's, like, super manly!!"
Saru turned to Yami.
His expression had softened.
"…You're annoying sometimes, you know that?" he muttered.
Yami grinned and shrugged. "Yeah, yeah. You still want your snacks?"
"…Yeah."
Saru flicked the staff onto his shoulder and turned, walking away from the trembling noble without sparing him a glance.