Silence.
He looked up. Goro was walking toward him slowly, savoring the moment. He raised his steel-shod right leg for the final axe kick—the same one that had crushed Akari’s skull. Buchikome High kick- -Final- -Aokumashii-
"Final," he whispered to the aokumashii sky. "This is the final." The rematch wasn't announced. There was no flyer, no social media hype. The Kurokawa-gumi didn't do publicity for failures. Instead, a single black envelope was slid under the door of Kenji’s makeshift shelter—a laundromat he’d been sleeping in. Silence
He launched the Buchikome High Kick one last time. He raised his steel-shod right leg for the
The word again. The bruise-colored finality. The first exchange lasted 0.8 seconds.
And above the ruined dojo, the aokumashii sky gave way to a clear, hard, honest blue. The bruise had healed.