"I'm not leaving!"
Mai Shiranui rejected Su Ye's words.
"I can't just leave because you tell me to. It's always like this, every time. I can only be a mere ornament watching you fight from afar, unable to help at all."
"I don't want that!"
"I want to be your partner, not a burden. I want to be a teammate who fights by your side, not just a cheerleader waving flags for you!"
"Xiao Ye, today I won't leave. I want to fight alongside you; I want to be with you!"
"Even if it means dying here!"
Su Ye looked at Mai Shiranui, just like the first time they met at the Shiranui Dojo.
Back then, Mai Shiranui was just like this—straightforward, decisive, without hesitation. She wouldn't even blink before rushing in with a Ninja Bee attack.
At that time, Su Ye even redesigned Mai Shiranui's battle outfit—the very 'Phantom' suit she was wearing now.
With this suit, Su Ye felt like he wasn't at a disadvantage anymore. Even if they went out at night to uphold justice, he could feel at ease.
And indeed, they had gone out together—on the rooftops of skyscrapers, in dark alleys, in the restrooms of commercial streets in the city center, even in the cornfields of the suburbs. Traces of their battles were left everywhere.
However, as Su Ye's power grew stronger day by day, their time spent fighting together became less and less.
Ever since Su Ye beat up Thor at the Shiranui Dojo, Mai Shiranui had practically disappeared from his daily life.
She became a theoretical girlfriend—someone who existed in name but hardly ever showed up.
What was it that made their relationship drift apart, that caused their worlds and actions to diverge, until they no longer intersected?
At the root of it all—it was Gwen!
If it weren't for Gwen monopolizing the position of Su Ye's official girlfriend for so long, Mai Shiranui wouldn't have been left outside, unable to join the team and become an official member of C.
Traveling with King and the others, eating, drinking, and having fun together, touring across the United States, and seeing the beautiful cities that are about to disappear from the earth...
Actually, if she could, Mai wouldn't want to stay with King and the others forever.
The fun between girls is only limited to girls.
What Su Ye could give her, the others never could.
Seems like I went off-topic?
Doesn't matter!
Anyway, in Mai Shiranui's heart, she just wants to become stronger, to become Su Ye's most capable assistant, someone who can stay by his side.
And if she truly became strong enough to crush the entire C team, maybe Gwen would consider accepting her.
After all, in a woman's mind, only a stronger man can conquer a strong woman.
A woman strong enough to crush C can only be conquered by the strongest man on Earth.
And on Earth, there is no man stronger than Su Ye.
So, only he can conquer Su Ye.
That logic checks out, right?
Probably...
Following this logic, improving her strength is something Mai Shiranui absolutely must do.
And this is something Su Ye seems capable of accomplishing.
But right now, this is a battlefield. Behind them, W is rampaging, the earth is shaking, and not far away, Mount Fuji is also stirring restlessly.
The highly anticipated Kyo Kusanagi can only keep attacking W's toenail frantically, yet he still hasn't managed to trim even one.
In this situation, would Su Ye really ignore that terrifying, world-ending monster W, just to spend time helping Mai Shiranui train and improve her strength?
How could this be... Well, it's not impossible.
After all, this is Japan, the birthplace of Godzilla. It gets destroyed several times a day in movies, so if W really wiped it out, it would be expected.
But in comparison, helping his girlfriend become stronger, turning her into a powerful hero who can save the world, crush C, and become an idol for all heroes—now that is something more meaningful.
"Alright, since you insist, then... let's send them away first."
Su Ye said, holding Mai in one arm while manipulating the magnetic field to send King and the others flying away into the distance.
"Ye Bro, we also want to..."
Yuri Sakazaki shouted mid-air. They were fighters too, not the type to retreat in times of crisis, so they rejected Su Ye's behavior of prioritizing his girlfriend while ignoring his friends.
They were all women; they could also become girlfriends, but with Mai Shiranui present, they were too embarrassed to say it out loud.
Su Ye shook his head and ignored Yuri Sakazaki's words.
Calling him "Brother Ye" wouldn't help. Even "Father Ye" wouldn't do.
King and Athena are one thing, but Yuri Sakazaki, that flat-chested girl, just go home and drink some papaya milk already!
After sending the three away, only Su Ye and Mai Shiranui remained on the scene.
In the distance, W was still approaching Su Ye, while the chakra snake in its mouth slithered far out, constantly trying to bite Su Ye and pull the Nine-Tails out of his body.
Kyo Kusanagi's frantic attacks did not stop W's advance but instead seemed to cure a bit of its athlete's foot.
In the distance, Iori Yagami couldn't bear to watch anymore.
"That loser is actually the heir of the Kusanagi clan? Facing a tree-like monster and he can't even slow it down? As someone from the Three Sacred Treasures clan, I feel embarrassed!"
As Iori Yagami spoke, he ran his fingers through his long red hair, looking completely exasperated.
"You two stay here, I'm going down there! The Kusanagi clan might lose face, but I Iori Yagami won't!"
After saying that, Iori Yagami ignored Mature and Vice's reactions, leaped down from the high ground, and dashed toward W at full speed while summoning a ball of blue-violet flames in his hand.
To be honest, in terms of appearance, Iori Yagami's blue flames looked even more striking and aggressive than Kyo Kusanagi's red flames.
And his momentum was far stronger than Kyo Kusanagi's.
From several kilometers away, he started shouting while running.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
His power output was basically driven by yelling—without passion, there's no motivation; without motivation, there's no burst; without burst, where's the combat power?
However, just sprinting a few kilometers at high speed would be difficult for an average person.
Yet Iori Yagami wasn't just sprinting at full speed—he was also shouting, which was a huge challenge for both stamina and lung capacity.
What's even more frustrating is that Iori Yagami had started from behind W, and W was still moving forward.
Kyo Kusanagi, crouching on W's toe, didn't really feel anything unusual.
But as Iori Yagami chased, he realized that this damn monster W, despite its casual strides, was moving ridiculously fast.
A 500-meter-tall giant could cover over 200 meters with each step.
After running for a long time, Iori Yagami found that instead of getting closer to W, he was actually falling behind.
This made Iori Yagami, who was running with flames in his hands, shouting loudly while chasing W, look like a complete fool.
By the way, doesn't he kind of resemble that viral gorilla from the zoo recently?
Su Ye, trying to avoid the chakra snake's grasp, sped through the air.
W took large strides, chasing after Su Ye.
Kyo Kusanagi was perched on W's big toe—though a little shaky, he remained steady and kept attacking.
Only Iori Yagami, looking like a fool, was gripping a handful of—uh, flames—and madly chasing from behind.
No matter how fast Iori Yagami was, he couldn't match Su Ye's flight speed.
So, the group ended up running in circles around Mount Fuji.
As they circled, Iori Yagami was fine, but the people and buildings around Mount Fuji were extremely unlucky.
Su Ye didn't even dare estimate W's weight—if he got a decimal point wrong, he'd be laughed at by readers.
Anyway, the impact of W's steps was no different from an actual earthquake.
Japan is already a country prone to earthquakes, with an unstable crustal structure. Even without interference, it experiences small quakes every three days and major ones every five.
With W running like this, it was like lighting a fuse.
Using Mount Fuji as the epicenter, the ground began shaking violently. Su Ye didn't know how many magnitudes it was, but within moments, not a single tree below was left standing.
This tremor spread outward like a ripple, quickly reaching the entire Tokyo metropolitan area.
Many people might not know, but the most populous city in the world is Tokyo, with a population of over 37 million.
And the entire population of Japan is less than 130 million.
One city holds nearly a third of the entire nation's population.
No wonder this place is so crowded.
People are everywhere; the streets are packed, and the trains and subways are even more suffocating.
In other countries, saying someone got pregnant from being squeezed in a train is just an exaggeration—a rhetorical joke.
But here, getting squeezed on a train to the point of near-conception is practically a daily occurrence... Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it does happen from time to time.
We've all seen those kinds of scenes.
Look carefully—this is a commuter train during rush hour. The car is completely packed with standing passengers, and they're all men.
And among this packed crowd, there just happens to be a single woman.
Her name is Xiaomei, an office worker who overslept and had no choice but to squeeze onto the train.
Last night, she was kept late at the office by her boss, working overtime until late at night. She only got home past midnight.
She accidentally dozed off on the last train, and a man—ignoring all the empty seats—deliberately sat right next to her.
Xiaomei woke up from her nap only to find herself somehow sitting on the man's lap...
The next morning, after a quick touch-up and putting on her Kyo Kusanagi hoodie, she hurried out—only to step into another packed train.
After an exhausting night, Xiaomei felt weak and struggled to stand steadily.
Just then, a "kind" passenger named Xiaoshuai squeezed in behind her, offering his "support" to help her stay upright...
Let's stop here—I'd better not elaborate any further.
So yeah, getting squeezed to the point of pregnancy on a train—while exaggerated—really isn't all that surprising in a place as overcrowded as Tokyo.
Where were we again?
Oh right, the Tokyo metropolitan area has an enormous population, nearly a third of Japan's entire population.
And at this moment, this third of Japan's population was about to face a crisis.
A sudden earthquake was about to destroy their homes.
Look carefully... ahem!
As the tremors spread through the Tokyo metropolitan area, buildings collapsed, roads cracked apart, and massive chasms appeared in the ground—like the gaping mouths of demons, mercilessly swallowing everything.
Less than ten minutes after the (Japanese government) delivered a speech to reassure the public, nearly half of the Tokyo metropolitan area was gone.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the group was still running in circles.
Su Ye refused to let W catch him.
W refused to admit it couldn't.
Kyo Kusanagi was absolutely not going to let himself fall off W's toe.
Iori Yagami was already exhausted, but stopping now would be too humiliating, so he gritted his teeth and kept going.
In mid-air, Mai Shiranui was speechless at this moment, her face turning bright red as her breathing became labored.
"How are you holding up? Can you still take it?"
Su Ye asked, his face full of care and concern.
Mai Shiranui gritted her teeth and nodded.
"No problem! Keep going! Again! Don't stop!"
"Alright, but be careful. If you can't handle it, just say the word."
Su Ye exhaled, the faint red glow in his hands deepening slightly as it completely enveloped Mai Shiranui, who was flying beside him.
"This pressure is already intense! You have to fight against it! Use your energy, your entire will and spirit to withstand it, break through it, and defeat it!"
Su Ye shouted, cheering her on.
They paid no attention to the scenes behind them or in the distance. Apart from Su Ye occasionally shifting positions to avoid the chakra snake's grasp, they remained completely focused on their research.
The researcher was Su Ye, and the subject of the research was Mai Shiranui's body.
This was a very serious study.
Su Ye thought of the "Absolute Domain" mentioned in the Hong Kong comic King of Fighters '96.
It was a technique of refining and enhancing energy. Once the body's limits were surpassed, one would enter the Absolute Domain.
Unlocking the Absolute Domain was akin to breaking a genetic lock—every aspect of the body's power would receive a tremendous boost.
Y (the author) couldn't exactly remember how to activate the Absolute Domain.
But according to the principles of genetic locks and how limits are portrayed in many works...
To break through limits, pressure was necessary.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance.
The greater the pressure, the stronger the resistance.
And per Newton's Third Law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
From this, it can be concluded that as long as one isn't crushed by pressure, they will explode with power under that pressure.