Luigi flipped out of the way as Genos charged him again, the flames shooting out behind the cyborg giving him the speed to close distances rapidly, though at a trade-off of turning speed. Luigi knew intellectually that he didn't need to leap so far out of the way to dodge his blonde opponent's charges, that a well timed simple sidestep would be enough...but he wasn't confident enough in his abilities and timing yet to attempt it. Besides, he was pretty sure he wasn't completely fireproof, and the exhaust flames were quite hot.

It had been several months of training now. The occasional monster still showed up during his training runs - which Saitama no longer oversaw - and Luigi had been able to repel them rather easily after that first time. While he still fled from each initial approach, his mind was no longer paralyzed by fear as he did so. He was learning not only to live with his fear, but use it as a weapon as much as he did his green fireballs, the Thunderhand, or his well worn boots. He could feel it pulse inside him, a power waiting to be used, but he would wait until he was certain he was in control before he ever tried to use it again. The dance...it still frightened him, especially because he had no memory of where he learned the technique. He just...knew it one day, a way to unleash the fear and the shadows inside him, to invert the world around him in darkness…

He ducked down as Genos attempted another charging punch, this time unleashing his super jump uppercut right into the cyborg's chin rather than dodging the charge. The twisting air around Luigi's clenched fist caused continuous damage as he sent his foe flying upward, but Genos recovered quickly to enter close-quarters hand-to-hand.

Luigi had trouble adapting to this side of combat, as his main fighting style was mostly focused on kicks, jumps, or hammers. However, he'd been adapting. Clenching both hands into almost fists, he gathered energy to either side of him as he swayed back and forth to evade the blows as he waited for Genos to make a mistake or push too hard.

There it was. He'd extended his exhaust tubes from his arm a little too long, trying to use the flames to make the punch fast enough to hit. Luigi's left hand shot up and he gripped the extended arm, discharging his gathered green fire into the limb.

Genos hissed in more shock than pain as he pulled back, pushing his own fire through the tubes to undo the damage. By the time he'd recovered, Luigi had already taken to his heels into part of the canyon they were fighting in that was a maze of rocks, boulders, and tunnels through the stone walls. There were only two directions the fight would go now. Either Genos would try to track him through the maze which would let Luigi get the drop on him as Genos was forced to slow down, or-

The sound of turbines priming. The scent of accelerant. The sudden wash of heat.

Luigi shot out of the chimney formation within the maze just as Genos dedicated himself to unleashing the wave of flames that would flood the maze to burn Luigi out. As he flew threw the air, Luigi spun and threw the sphere of electricity he'd gathered in his other hand. Seeing it coming, Genos disengaged himself from the flame maneuver as fast as he could, just barely dodging out of the way before the sphere would have hit him. It instead hit the ground, exploding into a massive sphere that Genos just barely kept ahead of-

Only to go down as Luigi impacted the top of his head with both feet, springing off to flip into a stuck landing.

"Stop!"

Both Luigi and Genos froze as they heard that voice. Looking up, they saw Saitama approaching. "Sensei," Genos spoke up as he started to push himself up, blinking as he saw a white-gloved hand extended towards him. Looking up, he saw Luigi grinning down at him from under his moustache. "Thanks, Genos offered as he accepted the hand up, amazed at just how strong Luigi had gotten so quickly, that helping someone who was more than 90% machine and who easily weighed several hundred pounds to their feet left him showing no signs of strain.

"Not bad, both of you," Saitama said as he approached. "Genos, you're learning your limitations a bit better, and you switched off your overburn attack faster than normal, so you're learning to be more versatile. Luigi, the same is true of you. I don't think I've seen you charge flame and lightning into your hands at the same time before." He then frowned at them both. "But you've both got a lot to learn. Genos, you're still leaving yourself open with your charges. And Luigi, you need to practice hand-to-hand more. What if you had to fight someone at sparring range you couldn't damage with fire or thunder?"

Genos and Luigi both nodded their acceptance of praise and criticism alike.

Saitama then smiled. "But you're both doing better. Let's go get dinner. Luigi, I think you're ready to try out for the Hero Association to see where you get ranked. Then you can start taking on monsters for further training."

"Oh how wonderful," Luigi offered, his normally happy voice barely managing to hide his sarcasm as he rolled his eyes.

"How about you choose dinner tonight, Luigi?" Genos offered happily. "To celebrate this milestone. My treat."

"We're getting italian!" Luigi declared happily. "Ramen's nice and all, but I'ma craving some real pasta!" Saitama and Genos both chuckled as Luigi bounced ahead excitedly, observing how Luigi didn't realize that he was leaping nearly twice as high as he had been when he arrived.

Inside the capsule, the strange liquid was starting to take shape. The magic being poured into it at the dark King's instruction was fueled on hate, pride, and blood. The first two the soul fragments all had in common, and the third had been added to the liquid to stabilize it. Slowly it was taking shape.

The focus of the hatred of each fragment...the one who had so callously destroyed them, treating them as simple obstacles, and erasing all they stood for.

Just a guy...for fun…

The emotions remained focused on the one who had destroyed them...and as rage, pride, and blood mixed with dark magic, that focus gave the pool shape. Slowly a figure emerged, a figure of negative colors and soul fragments, slowly but surely taking the shape that would give them vengeance.

Slowly they chose...to have fun...