When Fubuki first got dragged into the Kamui dinsion, it felt like reality itself had betrayed her.
One mont, she was staring into Shinji's eyes, eyes that pulled at her with an invisible force, like so kind of gravitational field, and the next, her vision went black. Her body lurched, the world tilted, and it felt like she'd been tossed into a blender of nausea and disorientation.
When her senses finally returned, she found herself in a bizarre, sunless world with no wind, no sky, no warmth. Just silence. A dead realm made entirely of towering stone pillars stretching in every direction, each one identical to the next. The kind of place that whispered you don't belong here.
"What is this place...?"
Her voice barely echoed. The stillness was suffocating.
The unknown was terrifying. And now, dropped into a world so cold and alien, her instincts scread that sothing was deeply wrong. A chill crept up her spine as her mind tried to process the situation.
This had to be Shinji's doing.
Who else could've dumped her into this nightmare?
But how had he done it? And more importantly, what was this place?
No answers ca. She was completely alone. With nothing else to rely on, she picked a direction and started walking. Her heels echoed faintly on the stone as she moved, but the scenery never changed. No walls. No sky. No edge. Just an eternal maze of stone columns in every direction.
The deeper she walked, the more hopeless it felt.
"Is he planning to keep trapped here forever...?"
Eventually, she gave up and sat on the cold ground. Her earlier psychic barrage, plus the hit from the iron gorilla, had drained her. Her muscles ached. Her head throbbed. She tried to convince herself she just needed a break, that she'd start moving again once she recovered a little…
But part of her already knew the truth.
She was stuck.
"Damn it… not only did he get in my way, he even locked up in this place..."
She muttered bitterly, voice low as her frustration simred beneath the surface. She hugged her knees, unsure whether she was more angry at Shinji or herself.
That's when a voice echoed through the stone air.
"Hey, I can hear you, you know. It's rude to talk behind soone's back."
Her head jerked up. Shinji was standing right in front of her, as if he'd materialized out of nowhere.
She sprang to her feet at once, dusting herself off and adjusting her posture in a single motion. The tired, scowling ss vanished in an instant. Her signature cold, composed aura returned like armor snapping into place.
"So it really was you who put in here, huh?"
Her voice was sharp now. Controlled.
"Yeah. I just thought you could use so ti to think. If you still haven't figured anything out, I don't mind giving you another couple of days."
Shinji's tone was calm, almost casual, like this was all just a minor inconvenience. Not exactly the attitude of soone who'd just locked her in a dinsional prison.
"You were the one who got in my way. Why should I be the one doing the reflecting?"
She shot back, eyes narrowing.
Shinji raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed.
"No, seriously, how does your brain even function? You and I had never even t. I wasn't interfering with anything. You just showed up out of nowhere and picked a fight."
He sighed, exasperated, and ran a hand down his face like he genuinely couldn't believe this was a conversation he was having.
"You want to surpass . That already ans you're getting in my way."
Fubuki didn't even hesitate. The words ca out sharp, cold, and without an ounce of doubt.
"So you're talking about rankings? Relax. I'm not planning to squat in B-Class just to steal your number one spot. I'll be moving up soon."
Shinji's response was cool as ever, but then he decided to poke the hornet's nest a little.
"Actually… now that we're on the topic, why haven't you moved up to A-Class yet? You've been stuck as B-Class Rank 1 for how long? Doesn't that get boring?"
Fubuki fell silent.
"...I have no obligation to answer that."
Her face stayed perfectly composed, but inside, Shinji had just stepped squarely on one of her most sensitive nerves.
The reason she'd never moved up to A-Class was painfully simple: she couldn't reach the top.
That position, A-Class Rank 1, was locked down by [Sweet Mask], and as long as he refused to promote himself to S-Class, nobody else stood a chance of claiming that spot. Including her.
Sure, she could probably land sowhere around Rank 6 in A-Class. She had the ability. But that wasn't enough for her. Not even close. Being B-Class Rank 1 ant more to her than being just another face in the upper tier.
Because "1" mattered. It was the only ti she'd ever gotten to see a number above her sister's. Tatsumaki was S-Class Rank 2. And even if it was petty, even if it didn't really an anything… one was bigger than two.
More than anything, it was the first "Number One" she had ever achieved in her entire life.
It wasn't just a rank. It was validation.
"…So you don't want to answer, huh? But with that mindset, you're not going to grow. You'll barely survive."
Shinji's tone lost its casual edge. It sharpened like a knife.
"Heroes exist to fight evil, not to satisfy their own selfish desires. That's not saying it, by the way. That's from S-Class Rank 15, Saitama."
He made sure to credit the quote. He wasn't pretending to be so selfless idealist. Honestly, he didn't have the moral clarity of soone like Saitama. He didn't see himself as a symbol of justice or an icon of virtue. He was just a regular guy, stuck in this strange world, trying to make sense of it and get stronger along the way.
Still, that alone gave him enough perspective to call out the things that felt wrong.
"You're just the big fish in a tiny, shallow puddle. Surrounding yourself with weaker people doesn't make you stronger, it makes you soft. You couldn't handle Beast King. You couldn't even stand against Iron Gorilla. Do you really think your so-called team could've done better?"
Shinji paused for a mont before raising a brow.
"You don't want to move to A-Class because deep down, you're scared. Not of the work. Not of the missions. You're scared of not being the best anymore. And instead of facing that fear… you take it out on rookies. You bully new heroes into submission and call it leadership. That's not just pathetic, it's dangerous. And this 'Blizzard Group' you're so proud of? It's not a squad. It's not an organization. It's a glorified tea party with a superiority complex."
His words hit harder than any physical blow. One after another, they chipped at her pride, cracking that carefully polished image she projected to the world.
But it was that last line, that final insult, that broke the dam.
Calling the Blizzard Group a child's ga?
Fubuki's blood boiled. Her fists clenched. Her whole body tensed like a cornered animal ready to strike.
"Shut up!"
Fubuki snapped, fury exploding from her throat. Instinct took over, she reached for her psychic powers to crush him, to silence him, to stop the humiliation.
But nothing happened.
The mont she reached outward, she realized it. This space… offered her nothing. No debris to hurl, no weight to manipulate, not even a single pebble to lift. Just empty air in a void of stone pillars. Her powers were as useless here as a lighter in a vacuum.
"So now you're just lashing out?"
Shinji's tone was ice. He stared at her like she was a tantrum-throwing child.
"Look at you. Right now, can you even touch ? Go find a mirror. Figure yourself out."
"I said shut up!"
She'd already lost it. Her eyes burned, her hands trembled, her control completely gone. With no psychic power to fall back on, she lunged forward out of sheer rage, pulling a small utility knife from God-knows-where and swinging it at him with no technique, no thought, just raw desperation.
Tears welled up in her eyes. Not from pain, but from sothing far worse.
Shinji's words had landed like bombs, digging into the parts of her that still hurt the most. And now it was all she could do to breathe through the weight of that truth.
But her wild swing didn't even co close.
With one hand, Shinji effortlessly plucked the knife from her grasp.
With the other, he clenched his fist, and drove it straight into her face.
"Sucker Punch."
The blow wasn't flashy. It didn't carry a blast wave or shake the air. But it knocked her back like a broken kite, her body sailing through the void before hitting the ground hard.
Shinji didn't always take it easy just because soone was crying. Lily hadn't tried to stab him, after all. This was different.
Still, he'd pulled his punch. If he hadn't, there wouldn't be much left of her face. Fubuki's physical stats were barely above average civilian level, since her entire fighting power ca from her psychic abilities. And in here, she had none.
Now she lay flat, limbs splayed, eyes wide but empty. She didn't even reach up to touch her cheek, already turning red and swollen.
That punch hadn't just knocked her off her feet. It cracked the foundation she stood on, her pride, her illusions, her certainty that she was in control.
[Alert! Host has defeated B-Class Hero "Blizzard of Hell." Reward: 20 contribution points!]
"Looks like you still don't understand your situation. Cool your head for a while."
Without another glance, Shinji turned and stepped out of the Kamui dinsion, leaving her behind.
Alone.
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