While everyone was looking, Itsuki finally opened her eyes, and she looked in the direction where everyone else looked in astonishment. She saw who saved her from almost having her head smashed by the stray gauntlet. It was another student registered at the school who arrived at the last minute. This student was male as well, around 5'10, and he wore beat-up, baggy clothes that looked like he hadn't taken care of them in years. With worn, beat-up shoes, ripped jeans, and a torn shirt, the crowd of students would have thought he was homeless just from his appearance. He also wore a beaten-up Army combat jacket, old and hanging by the stitching, the hood hiding his face, his mouth the only thing not covered. He wore a backpack carrying a motorcycle helmet and damaged dog tags attached to his belt. From the looks of him, either he was poor because of his military background or his clothes were hand-me-downs from his family.
The students were in awe of his presence; he appeared out of nowhere like a silent hero. However, everyone was murmuring about the attire; his actions more than made up for it. Just the look of him made everyone wonder where exactly he came from or what his abilities were.
Ryuji glared in bewilderment that the new guy destroyed his gauntlet that easily in front of him from a far distance. He had to have had a great sense of control to do that with that much speed and reaction timing, and being able to make the flame small enough to break the gauntlet without hurting Itsuki with any blowback.
Hiro was looking over the new student carefully. He could see the fist that fired the flames still hanging in the air, as if he was making a point that he was the one who did it. The other hand, tucked in the pants pocket, was not being used; it wasn't needed to destroy the gauntlet, showing he was strong indeed. His hands wore special gloves with a silver demon face on the back of each hand and a large silver bracelet with holes in it. From the make of the gloves, they weren't just common ones bought off the shelf for regular use. They had been made to a higher quality. Hiro could see that this student was careful about what he used in his fighting style.
"Oh ho, seems someone else wants to join in on the fun. Well, I'm game, hey new guy, you going to stand there all stoic like your Kenshiro or something, or are you coming to play with me too?" Ryuji tried to instigate the new student, but he wasn't biting. The insult was weak, and being called one of the greatest anime characters in history was just a compliment to the new student who silently smirked.
The new student didn't speak; he kept staring down at Ryuji with his eyes covered, hiding behind the hood and the shadows within it. His hand, with which he fired the flames, lowered itself, planting firmly in his pocket like the other hand was after making his point known. He slowly walked toward the crowd glued to his direction; he was ready to make the roll call and start his new school year with the others.
"OY! Are you mute, or just that arrogant with yourself? HEY! I'm talking to you, new guy!" Ryuji yelled out. The new student still didn't answer; he just kept walking at his pace.
Ryuji's veins in his face piled more. He felt disrespected by the new student's lack of introduction, and he was cocky just because he blew up that gauntlet. There are a few things that annoy Ryuji the most: one being treated like a child, two being treated like an idiot, and three being ignored by someone who has a high opinion of themselves.
"Tch, well, if you won't come here, then I'll just come to you." Ryuji formed a new gauntlet and dashed forward at manic speed toward the new student. He wasn't going to take that quiet nature of his like that at all; he was going to make him talk, even if it was wincing, painful pain.
The new student stopped walking. He took a deep breath, followed by shorter, calmer breaths in a rhythm. He removed both his hands from his pockets now and tightened them into solid fists, the sound of his fingers and knuckles cracking from the intensity he put into them.
He stood his ground, waiting for Ryuji to make his move. Ryuji was in front of the new student after his run. He thought he had a clean shot to the temple, but he was badly wrong in assuming he would land a clean hit. The student's eyes pierced the shade of his hood as he gazed at Ryuji, strong intimidation glowing in them. Nobody saw it in time; it was a quick strike that needed a trained martial arts eye to notice.
The new student punched Ryuji in the solar plexus with perfect timing. He used Ryuji's momentum against him to add more power to the blow of the force. The blue flames started to engulf the fist, just enough not to burn Ryuji's clothes off. The feeling of the burn, though as small as it was, greatly pained Ryuji; he was sent flying backward from just that one hit to his large frame. Everyone was greatly shocked by how much power was put into that punch, especially against someone with Ryuji's build, being sent away like a fly being hit with a swatter.
With a devastating punch of that strength and timing, and with his body frame against an opponent, compared to Ryuji's, the new student had to be trained in specific martial arts to accomplish it; it was the only real explanation that could be surmised by everyone who witnessed the technique.
"I recognize that technique he used. It's a breathing technique to gather Ki flow to create powerful attacks with a perfect balance of power, speed, and precision. The strike, as well, was not something an amateur would have pulled off with ease. That guy waited for Sakurai to get close, giving him a false sense of security. He perfectly timed that hit, using the momentum to backfire against Sakurai, making the blow even stronger in its recoil. That takes training to pull that in that split moment without anyone realizing what he did unless they have the sense to notice it." Ren commented, observing every detail he witnessed in that scene. Besides Hiro, he was the only one to notice how that was pulled off from his training. He saw the way the first rotated into a twisted snap jab to hit Ryuji, along with the flame magic behind it that added more damage. There wasn't a chance for Ryuji to prepare to defend against that unless he had the foresight to notice. Even if he did see it, he wasn't trained to defend against it, being as wild as he was while fighting Ren earlier.
"Son of a….."Ryuji groaned as he was utterly furious with what had just happened, wiping the tiny sliver of blood off his lip. He felt humiliated even more by being hit like that by someone smaller than him. He didn't want to look like a chump in front of everyone; he was going to get even. He made new stone weapons in response to the attack against him. He formed a new pair of gauntlets, boots, and even armor for his upper body and head.
"Baka(idiot), just stop, are you trying to get expelled over stupid pride? Just let it slide before the Headmaster gets here," Ren yelled. Ryuji didn't care that Ren was trying to make peace; he was too angry to listen.
He charged forward to the new student; his speed was incredible, even with all that armor on his body. The crowd couldn't help but be amazed at his strength to run like normal, even with stone-heavy armor on his body.
The new student wasn't fazed at the display in front of him. He let out an annoyed breath, feeling more irritated than Ryuji, because Ryuji couldn't take the hint that he wasn't in the same league as the new student. He wanted to attend the first day without any problems, and yet here was a guy acting tough and using him as a platform to do so. He decided to teach Ryuji a lesson so he could get on with his day.
Ryuji sped up his charging tackle toward the new student, thinking he wouldn't be able to land a strong enough blow with that much kinetic force. Ryuji was within range of his attack; he wanted to make a hit with his tackle and launch the new student the same way he had been launched earlier. Turnabout is fair play, in his opinion. He jumped straight, his shoulder pointing toward the new student's face; the shoulder connected, but not to the face. Instead, the student bent backward, dodging the hit with ease.
Ryuji missed, so he followed by slamming his fists downward in a hammer strike, continuing to aim for the head. The new student stopped it with a kick to the stone fist, striking the fist with the bottom of his foot and holding the downward strike in place like it was nothing.
The force behind the kick exceeded Ryuji's raw power; the new student then knocked the fist out of him, sending Ryuji off balance. Ryuji couldn't believe it had happened; he saw the new student's leg thrust upward, pointing to the sky, after kicking his fist off like nothing. The students watching were awed by the flexibility the new student displayed, and even more so when he kicked such a powerful strike with very little effort. The phones recording the fight had their screens blown with comments and likes from everyone enjoying the scene, practically making it a viral video.
'How the hell did he do that? He's so much smaller in frame than I am; is he really that strong? I've been misjudging him. Not only has he not moved an inch from that spot, but he's been perfectly still ever since he stopped walking. He' even kept still without losing balance to block my attack. He's just playing with me now at this point. That cocky little prick is screwing around with me to make me look bad on purpose. I'm going to break his skull for that!'
The new student pointed at Ryuji, and Ryuji gestured with a finger for the new student to 'bring it'. Taunting him to make another move, Ryuji's teeth ground at how much anger was boiling up inside him for being mocked. He launched the boots off first to try to catch the new student off guard, but that proved of no avail, as he roundhouse-kicked them into pieces. Ryuji believed it made enough of a distraction that he could make his move to follow up on the attack for a split second. The new student raised his hands in his fighting stance. He was serious now in this fight. As soon as Ryuji saw him move his body, he disappeared in an instant. Everyone was shocked, thinking he had teleported, having used an Esper technique that didn't require skill by breaking their bodies down at the molecular level and realigning them elsewhere. One of the most advanced techniques an Esper could pull off, unique to them like magic, was to Casters. But that wasn't the case; he only pulled himself into the ground with his brute strength, then sprang himself back up, positioning himself behind the new student.
"Got you now! Dodge this ba****d!" Ryuji threw his strongest punch yet at the new student, thinking he had won.
The new student wasn't fazed. He smirked again, and he took in another deep breath as he was going to use another counter move against Ryuji. Ryuji swung at what he thought was the new student's head, but it was an afterimage created from the speed at which he was moving in the instant.
"What the?"
He, like everyone else, was confused about what had just happened; not even their phones could capture the speed of the dodge perfectly. There was no way the new student was fast enough to avoid a punch at that close range. At least that's what the untrained Ryuji believed was going through his head.
In a flash, the new student was the one behind Ryuji; Ryuji had no time to react properly to whatever was going to happen next. He didn't even see how the new student got behind him so quickly and quietly without making a sound.
"Gouki Ryu(Fierce Soul Style), Gikufu no Kata, Ryuuha no Mai(Counter Wind Form, Flowing Leaf dance)." The new student proclaimed with a soft but authoritative tone.
The new student said in a soft tone, with authority mixed in.
The new student then positioned his hand in a knife hand move, and he thrust a karate spear hand-style hit onto Ryuji's back. The thrust was so strong it shattered the entire stone armor, leaving Ryuji defenseless.
"Fumetsu no Kata(Unbreakable Style), Tetsu no Kiba(Iron Fang)."
Ryuji struggled to move; he felt like his spine was severed from the blow, and the pain made his body go into a temporary painful paralysis.
It wasn't over, not after all the headaches Ryuji caused the new student. The new student touched the demon's face on the hand that stabbed Ryuji, sliding his hand down, he opened the mouthpiece, the mouthpiece making a cocking sound like a gun's hammer being cocked back to fire a bullet. The blue flames shout out of the mouth this time, followed by a punch to Ryuji's back
"HWATCHA!!!" The new student shouted his martial arts cry as the mouth on the demon slammed closed, firing off an explosive blast with the punch, sending Ryuji flying again to his embarrassment.
Ren recognized the moves that were used earlier; his eyes almost popped out of his head from the recognition of them. It was a pressure point attack aimed to paralyze the spinal column, creating a 'hellish' nightmare of pain throughout the body's nervous system. Making it worse if the one who was injured by it attempted to move any part of their body. The Ryuuha no Mai was an evasion move that involved relaxing all the muscles in the body and moving in perfect harmony with the air, avoiding any noise.
"Those techniques, those moves, I recognize them. That person, he couldn't be her student, could he?" Ren's heart raced with heavy feelings as his mind began to remember the day he saw those moves used before on his Master. Only one person used those move sets. He studied hard to find similar practitioners, but there were none. The person was the woman he met the day she fought his Master. It begged him to ask whether this new student was that woman's heir.
"That's enough!" A powerful voice shouted, and its echo boomed throughout the area, nearly numbing the students' ears. The sound was equivalent to a sonic boom, making all the students stop what they were doing instantly. Everyone turned to see who made that angry yell. The voice came from the current Headmaster of the school, Anna Takemura, clinching her fists in disappointment at the violence that broke out in front of her school.
The school's security ran to the students to defuse the situation and provide statements, along with the medical staff, for anyone injured during the fight. They detained Ren briefly because he complied with orders. Ryuji was restrained to prevent him from attacking again, and the new student was guarded by the security team, holding their palms with magic circles in case he fought back. Natsume gave the leader of the security team a detailed report of what happened, and the officer went over the notes, now having a clear picture of what went down between those three. Ren was let off because he defended himself. Ryuji had an anti-power bracelet put on his wrist as punishment for his actions. He wouldn't be expelled, but he would be assigned cleaning duties for a month as penance, since it was his first offense. The guards didn't leave the new student until the Headmaster questioned him personally. He had his hands up in the air, peacefully surrendering to avoid a bad situation.
Anna and Natsume walked over to the new student to question him; his appearance and skills interested Anna, especially his gloves.
"I'm Takemura Anna, the Headmaster of this school. You can call me Takemura-Kocho. That jacket and dog tags you're wearing are from the Army. I know you're not enlisted yet for your age, so you must have gotten those from a family member, I suppose. Those gloves though, they aren't normal run of the mill ones right, they're custom made, aren't they, judging from the make of them, they were designed for you specifically. You must have some connections to get a high-quality design like that. You must be a student here too, since you happen to show up here coincidentally, am I right?"
"Yes. To all questions, Ma'am." The new student replied.
"Well, that settles it then. From what I heard, you saved Shirayuki Itsuki from being severely injured and acted in self-defense. You're off the hook, but I don't want you using those moves on a student again unless on authorized training grounds, understood." Anna had to make her point; even if it was self-defense, it wasn't an excuse to go that far in beating up Ryuji, as far as she was concerned.
The new student saluted her in respect, acknowledging her request. She could tell he was from a military family, or at least had attended a military boarding school, from the way he carried himself, including the salute.
"Well, that aside, what's your name, soldier?" Anna remarked with a calmer manner, trying to make the student feel more comfortable.
The new student pulled off his hood to answer Anna respectfully. Everyone saw his face finally. He had a handsome face that made the girls blush more than Hiro did. His hair is long, barely touching his neck, with long bangs down his face, almost covering his eyes.
Itsuki saw his face too; the hood being off let her see it better from where she was standing. The sight made her cry, not from him being handsome, but from what she recognized. The hair he had was the darkest shade of midnight blue, his eyes were garnet-colored, and the most defining feature was. A white ribbon was tied around his neck like a choker. Itsuki couldn't mistake that ribbon from anywhere, because she only gave it to one person in her life.
"It can't be." She said, sobbing in happiness.
"Hayashi, Hayashi Kousuke."