The Weight of a Second

  Kenny shoved with?every ounce of his failing strength,?shoulders?screaming,?feet?digging trenches in the gravel.?He was a?human battering ram,?and Dozai?was his echo, two desperate weights driving into Sero’s ribs. For a?heartbeat,?they?lurched?forward.

  Not enough.

  Sero’s eyes?snapped open,?all traces of playfulness?vanished.?“Shit. I got sloppy,” he?hissed,?and?in the space of that breath,?he moved.

  The fist?came for Dozai’s face, a?perfect killing arc.?Dozai’s Maho?ignited,?not by choice but by?pure survival instinct.?The world didn’t slow in his vision.

  It stopped.

  He was frozen mid-breath—not because time had stopped, but because his mind was moving faster than his muscles could answer.

  The fist, huge, terrible, impossibly close—filled his vision. He could see the tiny papery crease at the knuckle every?dust mote frozen?in its path. He could hear the distant scrape of metal as if it were happening under water.

  His heart hammered so loud it threatened to drown thought.

  .

  .

  .

  “Huh?” The thought barely formed before another wave of frozen detail crashed over him.

  This stillness wasn’t mercy. It was a death sentence.

  Instinctual, cold calculation flooded his mind.

  The angle, the arc, the force... This punch wouldn't knock him out.

  It would pulp his skull against the rail.

  It would be the last thing he ever felt.

  “W-Wh-“

  Panic?bloomed?inside him,?cold and vast.?He?couldn't scream, couldn't move.

  It became a thousand small, hot tremors.

  Sweat?icing?down his temple, the?metallic taste of fear,?bile?burning?his throat.

  A thousand tiny alarms of frozen details?assaulted him. All of it?drowned into one brutal truth.

  He would die in the next second.

  “What do I… What do I…?”

  He?wrenched his focus outward.?Kenny was?frozen?mid-roar, still shoving. Roi was?a statue of desperation,?mouth open in a silent scream he hadn't even registered before.

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  He saw the pillar they were aiming for. They were close. Just a few more steps to drive him into the beam.

  But Nobu and Rei? He couldn’t see them.

  His vision tunneled.

  Instead, he saw the crowd.

  Master Hellick—calm, lips curled into a cold grin.

  Delnora—cheeks flushed, eyes wide, hungry.

  Kota—arms crossed, bored, annoyed.

  Lucious—smiling, a sharp and sick grin like he was tasting Dozai's fear on the air.

  A look he'd never seen Lucious wear before...

  The sight?didn't steady him; it horrified him.?Their faces were so calm, so unconcerned, on the brink of his death.

  And Rizaru, her face red, voice straining, yelling, begging.

  He had never seen her look like that either...

  His mind looped, scrambled—

  Beam—Nobu—Rei? Can't see—can't move—the beam—HELP—I'm—can't—

  Each thought?dying,?replaced by the?ice-cold certainty?of his death.

  He was going to die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  Die.

  No.

  His chest burned.

  Not like this.

  Something twisted in his gut.

  Not after everything.

  A word.

  Something older than reasoning, older than fear, broke its surface. It had no eloquence, no speeches, no thought. It was a?command etched into his bones, that always stuck with him in darker hours, for as long as he could remember.

  SURVIVE.

  Dozai's eyes squeezed shut—

  And time shattered back in.

  Sound.

  Heat.

  The fist.