Lautaro and Kinger walked towards the school. Kinger with a regular expression as if he had done this a hundred times before. And Lautaro with purpose, this was the day he was to make new cremates for his new gang.
Kinger walked right beside Lautaro, and Lautaro could feel the threatening aura radiating from the "side character," Lautaro had completely misjudged him. Kinger was stacked with muscles, but he was also so lean. From what Lautaro could see her was not only strong but agile. Lautaro was curious about the man and asked him some questions on the way to school.
"So is this your job? Just protecting new gang leaders?"
"Yea. Only the leaders though, the other parts of the crew are protected by their rank in the crew and their importance to the leader."
"Oh so you're like a high class bodyguard. I'm flattered."
The conversation went smoothly as Lautaro had lost his Hispanic accent long ago in the White Room. Plus this body didn't have an accent so nobody had to ask him to repeat his words. It was sort of refreshing.
"Have you ever failed to protect a leader?"
The answer was short, simple and heavy.
"No.
Lautaro looked impressed.
"How many times have you been attacked?"
Kinger's answer was outstanding and also threatening.
"421, actually make that 422."
Lautaro eyes focused, his senses sharpened. Then he emerged.
He didn't even try to hide his face. He was dark skinned and had a dark toque with various accessorieon it. He wasn't the most handsome but wasn't ugly either. He had a sharp jawline and wide eyes. His nose was big and round. And his lips were smaller than most. He wore a red hoodie that was zipped up. He also wore plain grey sweatpants.
He walked with a sort of greed to him. As if he wanted it all. His voice was like an excited one but it was not high pitched. He also wore voided sunglasses that slightly covered his dark brown eyes.
"Yo. I'm here to beat you."
He didn't cover anything. It's was as if he was that confident in his capability to take the glorious throne from Lautaro.
"And I'm trying to go school so get out of my way."
Kinger stepped in and his voice sounded lethal through the alleyway lined with various plants and flowers. Lautaro had only barely stepped off the premises of his house so the rich and lavish decorations were still there.
"I advise you obey Master Lautaro's words and leave."
One could see the attackers eyebrow raise.
"Obey? The way you say it pisses me off. I don't think I'll be "obeying" that bumblebee's orders."
Lautaro was slightly taken aback in confusion. Bumblebee was a new insult for him. Most of the time he was insulted it was because of race, not his eye color.
"Okay then. What are you doing here? What do you want?"
Lautaro asked the assailant, though he was pretty sure he knew what he wanted.
"Simple. I want to be the first one to beat you. I heard you gave a nice beating to Macell and I wanted to test if you really did it."
Lautaro was being tossed around by confusion, wave after wave he just became more confused.
"So you're just a Macell fan boy?"
"Nah. I'm someone who thinks the leaders of the Four Directions are weak."
By now Kinger had place himself in a position where he could let nothing past himself to Lautaro. Kinger was advancing towards the random until Lautaro stopped him.
"Kinger. Stop."
Kinger tried to argue back but Lautaro stood his ground.
"Alright then. Let's fight."
That was all the attackers needed to hear. He rushed at him with speed and with his hands guarding his face and chest in a way similar to boxing.
"You even copy the guy's martial art, at this point just marry him."
Lautaro mocked as his opponent charged. Then something somewhat surprising occurred.
A kick was sent flying to his head. Normally Lautaro was the one sending all the kicks but that wasn't an issue now. The real issue was finding out what he was up against. His opponent could have faked his fighting style to trick Lautaro but that wasn't it.
The way his opponent charged at him reminded him of Macell. So his opponent was either a boxer using his legs or...
A boxer using his legs! That was it! His opponent was a boxer using his legs, a kickboxer!
That was the answer.
Lautaro grabbed his opponents legs and brought him in. Then he punched him in his stomach. The punch hurt from what Lautaro could see. The person recoiled and clenched his stomach.
"Are the Four Directions weak now?
He heaved and puffed.
"Strong enough."
"Are you going to run away now? I wouldn't be mad if you did."
He chuckled and shook his head to say no.
He then asked towards Lautaro he was faster now. Fast enough to make Lautaro worry for a bit. But then he calmed down and anticipated what he was going to do.
And like Lautaro predicted. He feigned an attack with his left and attacked with his dominant right.
Lautaro was going to catch the fist and make the fight a quick one but it was Genesis Effect Monday, just his luck. As the swing came down to strike. Sunrise came and went right past the horizon and blinded Lautaro. And the assailant was able to get a good hit on him.
The attack was not weak in anyway Lautaro was just way too strong. He had grown since he first entered this First Major Adaptation. Maybe if he fought this guy as soon as he came into this world then he'd have a chance but Lautaro still heavily doubted.
His opponent took his opportunity and kept swinging attack after attack he wouldn't give Lautaro a chance to breath. Each fist thrown with will and determination, was being devoured by Lautaro's strong abs. Even if they punch aimed for his face, he still wasn't bothered.
And aiming for his legs wasn't an option either. It was more of you hit me you get hurt situation with aiming for Lautaro legs.
"If you got kicked by me you might actually die. So I'll have to be soft on this move I thought of."
The boy with the sunglasses didn't care and kept swinging. Lautaro decided to finish one a particularly heavy swing. It was a heavy hook and he reeled his fist all the way back and threw the punch. Even if Lautaro defended the blow it would still do damage.
It was an impressive punch.
But Lautaro was waiting for a moment like this.
"You should've listened to what I had said earlier and ran retreated. It's not always bad to retrat."
When Lautaro was just starting to sound all wise he had made a slight mistake in his speech. His wisdom level plummeted from that.
The punch came and Lautaro let it hit him. It came from his right fist which would make the counter he was to do weaker by attacking with his left, but that wasn't an issue he needed the counter to be weaker in order to not kill the boy.
When it hit Lautaro he actually felt it. And it hurt just a bit. The most it would do was give a bruise to his shoulder in which he used to block.
Then Lautaro timed it just right. He spun at the right time in order to not be pushed back by the heavy punch but instead he transferred the momentum, he combined it his own legs strength to spin.
It was the first time he had tried the technique and Lautaro was scared he was going to hurt himself. The roses and violets seemed to look more beautiful as he spun through the air like a drill. And like a drill he pierced.
On one of Lautaro's numerous spins he had managed to orient himself and time it so as to deliver a kick with his left foot. He held back a lot but not too much, he wanted this guy to suffer for his cocky attitude.
The kick landed and boy with sunglasses was sent flying into the thorns, which was not intended for Lautaro but he did feel bad for it. And just like that his opponent was knocked out.
Lautaro turned around because he heard the sound of Kinger clapping.
"A spinning kick, transferring the energy of you being pushed back to you spinning. Impressive. Even more impressive is that you managed to land the attack and even hold back to not severely injured the fool. I give my applaud."
"Thanks man."
"But once we get back I'm going to dedicate our training time to perfecting that spinning kick counter of yours."
Lautaro nodded and they walked to school without any complications.
***
Once at school Lautaro took his bag from Kinger and plastered posters all over the school. Posters to be a part of the Neo Genesis. The poster gave specific instructions.
It read.
"Be a part of the Neo Genesis. Go to the Gym at 5:00pm. There you be chosen through various trials. The first of which will be a Battle Royale. The rules will be further explained at the function."
The best part of the poster was that Lautaro had no part in it. Salvey did all the work for him. Though it wasn't very decorated it was prominent and that was his favourite part about the poster. It was that he just paid the school and people who put their posters first to stop all poster activities for an entire week.
Then the wait began. Lautaro started school which he still had to attend, despite being an actual gang member the higher ups, whoever they were, still insisted that all gang members in training go to school.
It was kind of stupid but Lautaro didn't argue. He just sat in all his classes trying his best not to fall asleep and he kept his mind distracted by Annie and their constant bickering. But all he could do was wait.
Then the first bell rung. After another wait. The second. The third and then the fourth and final bell rung signalling the end of the day.
Lautaro rushed to the gym and saw Salvey there. Lautaro ran to hug his friend but he might have been a bit too enthusiastic and Salvey just dodged when Lautaro dived.
"I'm not doing that man."
Salvey sounded different. His voice was a million times deeper and it sounded warbled.
"Puberty hits hard."
Salvey gave Lautaro an eyebrow before pulling out a mask from his hoodie pocket.
"It's to hide my identity. Because... you know."
"Oh I get it. I'll just call you my assistant from now on. Isn't that right, my assistant?"
Lautaro shortly followed it up by claiming.
"Oh that's sounds so right. I might just call you my assistant forever."
Lautaro could see Salvey roll his eyes under the extremely detailed mask.
It was a white and red oni mask. It had red horns protruding from the top of its head and white skin all over. It had sickly yellow stains on its otherwise perfect teeth. Its ears were sharp and cut maybe cut. It had a normal sized nose and a material that was ebony in color but was still able to be seen through. It also had some fangs instead of molars and incisors.
Soon enough they potential crewmates came and flooded the gym. The gym was massive maybe about 6000 square feet. But it was still barely smaller than his house. There were about 290 contestants all of them looked promising. Lautaro didn't even know some of them came to this school.
The contestants came in to Lautaro and Salvey playing football to pass the time. Then when the door stopped opening Lautaro sat in a desk and Salvey stood right next to him and then the fun began.