Kodak walks towards Kenzo's car while holding his sister, wearing a confused look on his face. "Wait, you're the principal of Nexus High?!"
Kenzo then nods, "That's right, and I want you to join my school."
Excitement and a look of hope fill Kodak's face instantly. He opens the car door and gently places Akuma inside it.
"So when can I join?" He shouts gleefully.
Kenzo then places his hand on Kodak's shoulder while lightly chuckling. "Whoa, slow down there, kid. First and foremost, we need you to be ready for the entry exams. You'll be tested based on your revenant's output, input, proficiency, innate technique, and the skills you've built up until that point. Not to mention the physical test that pushes your body to its limits."
Kodak then smirked upon hearing his uncle's words. "Is that it?" He said with a confident look in his eyes.
It surprised Kenzo to see that fiery look in Kodak's eyes. He then smirks at him, "Y'know you have a lot in common with your father."
"Really?!" Kodak said with a surprised look on his face.
"You do," Kenzo said confidently. "You both have a strong sense of justice and are heroes in my book."
Kodak shook his head upon hearing the words spilling from Kenzo's mouth.
"I'm not a hero. I am nothing like Dad. The only thing I can remember is my hands being stained with blood, and the screams of those begging me to stop. I hate my powers, and I hate being unable to control myself!"
A suffocating silence then shrouds the two of them. Kenzo then watched Kodak run past him with tears flowing down his face. His feet then started to glow as he felt revenant coursing through his body, and then a message from the system appeared.
[Revenant is now coursing through your legs!]
[Run 10 miles to achieve a new skill!]
[Current Progress: 0/10 Miles!]
Kodak looked at the message with contempt. He hated this damn power. "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST DISAPPEAR!?" He shouted in anger as he traversed the land. His feet start to speed up as he quickly finds himself in a forest.
A rather dead forest he was in. The dark grey branches spread for miles and miles across the large mountains. And the ground was riddled with large boulders and oddly shaped stones.
Kodak was angry. Not just with himself, but with everything that happened. His face glared at the boulders as if they had done something to cause it.
His loss of control over his own body which was directly caused by his own avatar. His blood-stained hands ruined the family's reputation. His mother's expected, but early, death. And not to mention, he was considered to be a hero like his proud father was?!
It was a bunch of bullshit in his words. But for whatever reason, he then struck the boulder hard in anger. A shockwave then echoes through the forest. The grey trees tried to hang on to their pitiful life, trying to stay tied their roots.
Tree trunks and branches were torn apart by the violent shockwave, and a giant cloud of dust was kicked up from Kodak's punch.
His fist stung a little bit, but he didn't really care. Cause that physical pain was nothing compared to how he felt about himself and what happened over the past year.
But as the dust slowly settled from his single, yet powerful punch. Kodak's eyes widened as the boulder wasn't even budging. It hadn't even moved a single inch from its spot.
Kodak then closely examined the boulder with his eyes. Tracing from the top of the 10-foot boulder to the very bottom. He then saw a message from the system appear.
[Skill: Detect has been unlocked!]
Kodak glared at the system's message. "I don't want a fucking skill!"
[Too bad :P]
His face tensed with anger as Kodak saw the taunting message. "Piece of shit," He muttered under his breath with a glaring look.
Kodak then decided to use the skill, and the moment he did, his eyes glowed a bright blue. Information about whatever he was looking at flowed into his head. It was like a sea of knowledge was being carefully placed in his mind.
"Trees, dead, grey, grass, dead. This skill is amazing!" Kodak thought to himself.
He then looked at the boulder and saw another message from the system.
[Material is unable to be detected!]
[You need to evolve "detect" for harder tasks!]
A deadpan stare then washed over Kodak's face, "You're just useless."
But as he looked at the stone again, he saw a bunch of messages immediately popping up from the system.
[Multiple skills are on the verge of being unlocked!]
[Skills: Shockwave Burst, Aura Reinforcement, Wave Explusion, and Echo State!]
[Mastering these will unlock your innate skills that are tied to your I.R.T.! (Innate Revenant Technique)]
Kodak looked at the messages, deeply confused about the reason why he was being told them. But as he looked back at the rock, his legs went numb and his vision slowly began to fade.
---
"You need to wake up, Kenji!" A woman with dirty blonde hair said.
Kodak was slightly confused by the woman. Who was she? Matter of fact, who was Kenji!?
The woman's voice then faded as his vision began to clear up.
"Kodak!" The familiar voice called out. It was Kenzo's that he had been hearing all along. This then led to Kodak slowly sitting up and wondering where he was. He looked around the dark teal room, seeing that he was on a very comfortable bed that had blankets and pillows surrounding it like a nest. It was... peculiar.
He then rubbed his head as his uncle suddenly hugged him tightly. "Gah!" He gasped in surprise. "Hey, unc. Miss me much?" Kodak said in a joking manner.
Kenzo squeezed him tighter until he eventually released him. "What happened in that forest?" He asked with a worried expression. "I heard a loud shockwave, so I rushed in, but by the time I got there. You started floating in the air. Your kinetic energy technique seemed to be protecting you. Almost like it was something else."
Kodak held his head, trying to think of what had happened. "I was angry, and thinking about all the horrible stuff that happened last year. And then I punched a boulder that was around 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide, but it didn't budge even an inch. And then when I tried to use my newly acquired skill, detect. I saw that the material was unrecognizable."
Kodak then tensed in pain as his head hurt. "But then I saw that multiple skills were on the verge of being unlocked, and then I blacked out."
Kenzo then sat for a moment before talking once more. "Just get some rest. I'll investigate that boulder, and then we'll start training you for the entry exam. After all, you only got 10 months to train."
Kodak's eyes then widen in shock. "10 months!?" He shouts in a surprised tone. "That's not enough time!"
Kenzo then shakes his head. "Chill out, Kodak. If you think you have no time to prepare. Then you've lost already." He then watches as his nephew's eyes shift to a faint sense of hope.
"Do you really think so, Kenzo?"
"Kodak, I know so."
Kenzo then exits the room, and out of the house. His eyes then glow a teal color and an aura of wind surrounds him. "Gale. Swiftness. Burst!"
[Innate Skill: Swift Winds!]
Wind flows around Kenzo's legs. His long silver hair flows in the wind as he squats low to the ground. His legs explode upwards, launching him through the air. His hair then flows back, revealing a gruesome scar that was covering a blind eye.
Kodak then watches from the window as he sees Kenzo zipping through the sky. "Looks like the old man's powers are the same as ever." He said with a focused look. "So, what's wrong with my revenant?"
A voice then called out to Kodak. Or, rather in his mind. It was calm, deep, and most of all intimidating. "You going to train your revenant or what?"
Kodak then turns around, seeing the translucent body of a long fluffy black-haired man. His physical form seemed somewhat... unreal. He also was dressed in what seemed to be a black kimono covered in cherry blossoms.
His eyes were also a shade of yellow, almost like a cat's. But what made Kodak wary was the obsidian blade that was by the mysterious man's side.
Kodak then jumped back as he felt the piercing gaze locked on to him. His senses screamed and pleaded for him to do anything he could.
He then yelled at the man, trying to get some answers. "W-who are you?!"
The man then spoke again, "Calm down I only wish to help, Kodak Kawanari." His gaze then calmed and those yellow amber eyes of his began to soften. "Now I ask again, why aren't you training your power?"
Kodak's body stayed tense, and ready for the man. Cause in his mind he could've been trying to throw him off. But then again, "What's the harm in playing along with this guy?"
"I hate my power."
The man then tilted his head in confusion from Kodak's reasoning. "How so?"
Kodak's head then tensed as a vein burst from his forehead. "CAUSE YOU CONTROLLED ME!" He stated angrily. "YOU MADE ME TARNISH THE KAWANARI NAME!"
The man's face then went into an intense stare. "What." The air then felt suffocating to even breath.
Kodak then watched as the man's amber eyes suddenly turned crimson red. And the next words that spilled from his lips were, "What bastard dared to tarnish the Kawanari name?!"
His eyes continued to pierce into Kodak. And a slight sense of uneasiness washed over Kodak's body. He wanted to run, kick, punch, or anything to gain some distance from this man. But his mind and lips thought different.
"Some type of avatar was controlling my body. Said he hadn't fought revenant rankers. He also couldn't wait to meet my dad. Said he was pathetic compared to the others?"
Kodak didn't really get why the ominous voice said that, but it was clear that the strange entity was dangerous.
"Seems that we aren't the only avatars in your body then, Kodak." The man spoke softly. His eyes then shifted back to yellow and the air seemed to soften around them.
"Wait what do you mean, we?" Kodak asked in a confused tone. "There's another avatar!?"
The man then smiled as Kodak felt someone behind him. "Just be warned. She doesn't really care about personal space once she finds you interesting."
Kodak's head jerked around, seeing a beautiful tall woman. Her frame was rather slender and gentle. A complete opposite of the man's intimidating presence.
The woman's hair was straight and soft-looking, almost like actual silk. And the color of her hair was white with a bit of a blue hue.
She wore a white kimono that had some writing on the back that were in Kanji symbols. "Protect and Preserve."
Her facial features were soft and almost angelic-like. Just her presence alone calmed Kodak deeply.
Her soft pale hands then carefully placed themselves on Kodak's face. And she looked at his black eyes.
"Such dark eyes you have. You'd think he had killed someone. But you seem regretful. Do you not?"
Her voice was soft and kind. She also seemed to be very perceptive. But what Kodak noticed most about her was that she felt warm.
Her skin was white as snow, and yet she wasn't cold. In fact, she was warm and gentle.
Kodak's eyes then gazed into the woman's eyes. He saw her bright blue eyes meeting with his black eyes. And a sense of clarity washed over him.
He felt safe and calm, unlike before. Kodak then watched as the woman then released him, and laid by the strange man's side.
He then asked a question towards the two of them. "What's your names?"
The man and woman smiled as they spoke with a clear and just tone.
"My name is Kuroi."
"Name's Kiko."
Kodak then smirked upon hearing their names. "Glad to meet you both, now will someone please tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?!?" He shouts angrily.
Kuroi quickly covers Kiko's ears as to protect them from Kodak's slight outburst. And all Kodak saw was a deadpan stare from Kuroi's face.
"Are you going tell me or what!?" He expressed with a slightly quieter tone.
Kiko then replied to Kodak's question with an annoyed tone. "Depends, are you gonna stop being loud and annoying? Cause I hate loud things."
A vein then flexed along Kodak's neck upon hearing Kiko's rude remarks, even it was slightly hypocritical of him. "Mind repeating that!?" He said waiting for another snarky remark from Kiko's mouth.
Instead Kiko only ignored Kodak's rude tone and turned towards Kuroi and asked him, "Should we show him how to train and hone his revenant properly?"
Kodak then shouted at her again, even more visibly annoyed than before. "DON'T IGNORE ME YOU FUCKING-!"
His harsh tone was then interrupted as a red glowing hatchet was pressed up against his neck, and his right hand was pinned against the floor.
Kodak's mind was both astonished and shocked at what just happened. "The hell was that?!" He thought to himself. "One moment I'm standing ready for anything, and the next I'm on my ass. Is the gap between us both just that massive?!"
Kiko then felt a hand grasp the back of her kimono's collar firmly. And then as she looked up, she saw Kuroi with a frustrated expression strung along his face.
"Oops?" She said with a casual shrug with the red hatchet still gripped firmly in her left hand.
Kuroi then gently put Kiko back down on Kodak's bed and averted his attention towards Kodak. "I'm only gonna say this once so listen carefully, Kodak."
"Loud and clear, Kuroi." Kodak said with his face still slightly shook from the difference from him and Kiko.
"Now, Kodak. Do you truly hate your abilities?" Kuroi asked. Kodak's eyes widened with anger. Were they deliberately trying to piss him off?
"Are you stupid, of course I do!" Kodak says in an aggressive tone. But the only thing he saw was Kuroi shaking his head at him. "You seem to confuse hatred for unacceptance," He said in a soft and understanding tone. "You also need to know that this wasn't your fault whatsoever. NO matter what you think."
But as Kuroi looked at Kodak's eyes, trying to see if his perspective was changed. But the only thing he saw in his eyes was: MANIA.
Kodak's eyes then glared at Kuroi, strung with anger, frustration, and malice. "What could you possibly know anything about me!"
[Innate Technique: Kinetic Charge has activated with maliciously intent!]
[WARNING! MANIA HAS ENTERED YOUR REVENANT!]
[FURTHER USE ONLY LEADS TO FURTHER CORRUPTION!]
But as those messages from the system crossed Kodak's eyes, he only swatted them aside. As if they were some kind of pest or bug.
Kuroi then shook his head in disappointment. "I thought others like yourself would be different. Seems as though your just a hotheaded imbecile."
But Kuroi's words meant nothing, in fact it only seemed to enlarge and enrage Kodak's mania-filled eyes. He then looked towards Kiko with an expression of annoyance. "Please don't kill him at the very least, Kiko."
But Kiko only smirked as her hands began to glow a crimson shade. "No promises."
Kodak then rushed forward, charged with kinetic energy. "GRAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
His fists swung at Kiko, radiating with animosity as his violent attacks were violent being thrown out at her. But it wasn't until the 28th punch that he felt his arms being grabbed.
Kiko then got close in Kodak's face as a look of disgust covered her pale face. "You know, I was hoping that the last Kawanari would bring something different."
Kodak's eyes then widened as his restrained arms tried to forcefully break free. But as more of the dark blue kinetic energy poured out, Kiko's strength only grew stronger and fiercer. It was like he was facing an insurmountable wall. One that couldn't never be climbed.
Kiko then continued with her harsh, but truthful words. "You will never be like your father. I mean the Kawanari family never really could fill in those shoes of the Fujiwara."
Kodak persisted further with his rage, but as he did the same thing over and over. A voice then stumbled into his head. Not Kiko, nor Kuroi's. But the one he heard from a year ago.
"Switch."