15 hours later . . .
"What's his name?" A mysterious man said, picking up a mug and drinking from it.
"The boy's name is Yohan Shoi, he lives in a secluded neighborhood located near Okinawa accompanied by his mother, Yuri Shoi."
"Appearentely she married Kyo Shoi a little later after having birthed Yohan— Kyo is Yohan's father, another Golden Yon user. I am currently still looking into his case."
"Thank you General, you've proven quite admirable now as our best detective— Now wake the boy, I want to meet him." The man said, adjusting the tie around his neck.
"Of course sir." The General stood walking towards the door, he closed it shortly after his exit.
Some time later a door screeched open, the light creeping in as my eyes fluttered awake— It took awhile before my eyes adjusted to the brightly lit room.
There stood a man approximately standing at 192 centimeters, which was approximately 6' 6. I finally came too when the man sat close to my bedside.
"Yohan, right?" Zhou rested his palm on my shoulder, completely covering it.
"Uh, ye-yeah.." I noticed the difference in size between his hand and my shoulder, but I focused on the bigger picture at hand— where the hell am I?
"Uhm, and you are..?" I asked with a groggy voice, looking with suspicion in my brows.
"Call me Zhou, you must be wondering why you're here."
Zhou's voice was deep but calming, almost reassuring of the entire situation.
"Yeah I am, can you please explain sir?"
"You were brought here by one of our Lieutenants but for special reason, we believe you have a dangerous power inside you and we want to make sure you're safe." He said, patting my shoulder.
"Don't worry buddy, you aren't in trouble."
Everything he said struck me all at once, my head throbbing in pain— I wondered what the hell he was talking about. Is he really telling the truth? I thought.
"Wha-What do you mean.. Dangerous??" I said exhaling sharply.
Zhou stood up walking towards the door.
"I'll show you, follow me."
I stood up from the bed I laid on, walking towards the door and following Zhou.
We arrived in the hallway near the main lobby where I heard lots of commotion amidst multiple people residing in the lobby, then Zhou turned towards me with a smirk on his lips.
Standing to the left of me was a case of odd weapons and an old dusty book. I walked a little closer to the case, admiring the book— It had a hard dark green cover, with the title named 'The Secrets of Yon.'
"I see you take interest in the antiques, that book especially."
I couldn't help but grin awkwardly knowing he was right, I was always a nerd for these kinds of things.
"Yeah, what's Yon?" I asked briefly afterwards.
General Zhou raised his hand, moving it closer towards me. Flames then emitted from his palm, flames so intensely hot I felt as if the sun was beaming on me.
"This is what we call Yon, it is an essential energy that flows through everyone and everything— It is what makes life itself." He answered before extinguishing the flames from his palm with a single wave of his hand.
I was completely shocked, and my mouth hung open as I witnessed flames randomly appear on his palm— I couldn't just believe all of this, it seemed like an act of some sort.
"Wha- Ho- You made fire?!" My hands were sweaty, and I was shaking a little but I definitely processed what Zhou said.
"Wait, so if Yon is life energy..? Can't I do the same thing?" I asked, holding my head with both hands like I had just seen something horrific.
"Not quite, you see what I just showed you was something I generated via my Spirit."
"It's not something you can just copy, everyone has a unique and different Spirit just like you, and you'll figure that out soon."
Everything jammed into my mind at once, from the concept of life to the core of Yon.
"That's both incredible and scary…"
That must be what happened when Yoshi was trapped under that tree, and I was able to lift it with ease..
I thought, stroking my chin.
Zhou smiled, most likely guessing what I was thinking just now.
"I heard of your little incident, you lifted a 3 ton tree with slight struggle. You could have used Yon then, and didn't know."
I smiled, flexing my muscles jokingly.
"So what you're saying is, I'm a prodigy?"
My thoughts came to a stop, as I zoomed into realization, My heart sank as the world around me seemed to have collapsed.
"Where are Anya and Yoshi..?" My voice cracked as I spoke, I no longer had a joking attitude. This was serious.
Zhou paused before answering, he then spoke up.
"They're safe, don't worry.."
I took a few steps forward staring Zhou in his eyes with anger and fright.
"Tell me where they are, now." My voice was demanding as I was visibly becoming irritated.
"Like I said before, they're safe." He said, keeping his demeanor, raising his hands up in defense to calm me down.
My hand moved forwards grabbing Zhou's collar, my face moving closer toward his.
I felt the sharp pain of pressure building around my forearm, it was Zhou's grip straining my arm.
"Le- Let go.." I said wincing, I tried not falter and I kept persisting that he bring me to my friends.
"Not until you calm down." The pressure didn't increase, but his grip was so intense he would've broken my arm.
"I am calm! Bring me to my friends." I said, raising my voice.
Suddenly the grip loosened, Zhou let go and fell to his knees silently trying to compress his grunting noises of pain.
Steps from behind me grew louder and closer in a direct line towards me, I managed to shrug off the pain and turn around while I rubbed my arm from the visible bruising.
Beside me, the source of the steps— He wore a full suit, but he didn't look like an ordinary man. He was strong and certainly as tall as Zhou.
He walked closer towards Zhou, closing his hand, releasing General Zhou of his discrete punishment.
"I gave you orders Zhou, do not do that again." The man was polite despite disciplining Zhou, he had such good manners while speaking.
"I'm sorry, Mr. President.." Zhou stood apologizing quickly..
I was surprised, even a little startled on how he shut down Zhou rather fast— Just who was this guy?
"Who are you?" I asked, still trying to ease the pain in my arm.
"I'm President Abara, I am the governor of this facility and the rightful heir to the Abara Clan."
The President put out his hand resting it upon my forearm, healing the damage done almost in an instant. Any pain was relieved.
"There, now we're even."
I raised an eyebrow, wondering what he meant.
"Thanks? but, why would we be ev-"
President Abara was swift, walking past and cutting me off.
"I will explain later, but I would like you to follow me. I'm sure you want to see your friends."
I reluctantly agreed, following shortly after, with Zhou behind me.
We walked a few hundred feet before reaching the main lobby I mentioned earlier, Anya sat on a bench in a depressing mood.
I slowly walked up to her with a pang of worry in my brows, I had wondered what happened to her— I sat next to her wrapping my left arm around her.
She shot up in surprise as I sat down next to her, she looked scared but relieved as she recognized me.
"Oh my Yohan, where were you? Are you okay? What happened to you?"
I chuckled seeing Anya give her usual frantic questioning, but all I could answer was if I was okay.
"Yes I'm okay Anya, what about you though?"
Anya looked at me as I spoke, tears forming as they slowly poured down her cheeks— She looked broken or almost traumatized, but she finally mustered up the energy to speak.
"I'm just processing everything, like what had happened at the park.. It's unbelievable."
I started remembering the creatures that had started climbing from beneath the surface, multiple mutilated bodies thrown after those creatures finished feasting.
"Yeah, I can't believe it either.. I don't know what those things were but they shifted their bodies a lot when they ate someone, it was terrifying."
Anya leaned closer resting her head on my shoulder, she whimpered quietly as I felt her trembling body against mine.
"It'll be okay Anya, I promise.. Everything will go back to normal."
A familiar voice from the hall next to us echoed through my ears, banging against my brain.
"Yeah Yohan, everything will go back to normal."
I turned only to see Tiwan slowly stepping towards us.
"Only you can save us, Yohan."
He spoke in a mocking tone, smiling as he did.
"Tiwan…? what are you doing here?"
Tiwan looked at Anya with a mischievous grin, I noticed his burning glare on her as did she.
She was usually loquacious but she seemed off, I held her closer comforting her.
But Tiwan approached us grabbing the collar of my shirt, I reacted by gripping his forearms attempting to pull him off.
Anya reacted also, sitting up and grabbing Tiwans arms, she attempted to pry them off of me but failed.
"Let him go, you jerk!" She said grunting.
"You're not even strong enough to pull me off, what makes you think you can give hope?" Mocking me, he briefly let one of his hands go pushing Anya back before grabbing my collar again.
She fell to the ground, and grunted in pain.
My brows furrowed in anger while looking at him in dismay, entirely unable to do anything.
The grip on his forearm tightened as I was able to finally pry his hands away from my collar.
"Don't you dare put your hands on Anya again..!" I shouted, slightly grunting
I flashed back to when Yoshi was trapped, when Yon formed around my arms.
It then happened again, Tiwans arms were pushed aside along with his ego, the flex of my strength forced my veins to reveal surrounding my forehead.
What the hell… where did this strength come from? Tiwan thought, eager to get back in control.
I reeled my arm back releasing a blow to the side of his face, as my fist connected he stumbled back, looking demented.
"Try that again and watch what happens." Tiwan said, stepping back up to me.
A familiar energy formed around his hand, the energy shaped and manipulated into a singular point resting inside of his hand. It was his left fist, which flew straight forward, it was a flicker of speed impossible to see to the naked eye.
That's fast! My eyes barely tracked his fist.
I didn't even know until it happened, the wall behind me pulverized along with my stomach— that is if it hit.
"Yo Taiwaan, who do you think you are, dickhead?" Tiwan's fist was stopped.
The voice was coming from a boy next to Tiwan, who was a bit taller than me. He had long messy black hair with dark green tips that went down to his mid back in a tied style.
The sudden sound of chains echoed the room, a quick burst of fetters binding Tiwan's arms simultaneously, the boy stepped back while dropping his hips in a twisting motion which caused Tiwan to be launched into the wall behind them.
"When did yo-" Tiwan roared before he was slammed into the wall across from us like a ragdoll.
"Yo you alright?" The boy spoke again, this time directed at me, he helped me stand properly.
Anya rushed to my side after the boy intervened, she then turned towards the boy asking—
"Who are you?"
A sweat bead trailed down my face as we waited for him to answer.
"You can call me Inouye, you two must be new." He responded shortly after with his index finger pointing towards us.
"Yeah, thanks for that.. I'm Yohan and this is Anya."
I nervously lowered my head in respect to him, Anya did so too before turning and hugging me gently.
I kindly placed out my hand shaking his, Inouye took mine returning the gesture. I winced from his intense grip strength.
"Yeah sure, don't let a loser like that punk you.. unless you're all talk?" His brows narrowed analyzing me.
"Well.. Not all the time, I never talk like him." I chuckled nervously, gently rubbing the back of my head.
"Sorry, but how did he do that?" I asked in reference to Taiwan's Yon.
Inouye looked at me in confusion, but picked up what I meant quickly.
"You mean the blue hue of energy?" He lowered his head slightly, beginning to explain to me.
He continued with a more serious tone, "I'm sure that big fella you walked with earlier explained what it was, but to expand on it if he already didn't, he manifested life energy from his spirit— conjuring it into a singular point to release it fully onto you."
Taking in the information was enough but to actually comprehend it was another, No way someone like Tiwan could do that. I thought, especially knowing him almost my whole life.
"So what he used was Yon right?"
"Zhou told me about it. But never explained how I can do it too."
Inouye just stared at me, he was obviously disinterested in what I was saying.
He turned walking away, waving his hand off at me forwards and back, a gesture as if he was telling me to follow him.
"Follow me." He said not even waiting for us to catch up to him.
"Oh!" I realized briefly after turning towards Anya, she nodded her head smiling.
I took her hand. "Are you okay?"
She nodded. "Yes, we should probably follow Inouye though." She said, chuckling, although her face still looked distressed.
A few minutes passed and we stopped walking, or Inouye stopped and we just stood next to him.
"This is the yard, it's where we practice Yon and Zing. This is most likely where you'll train." He said finally, yawning and stretching his arms.
"Train?!" I said, looking at both Inouye and the yard.
I didn't know how training would work, but I was more interested in what Inouye said. An unfamiliar system that I haven't heard of.
"What's Zing?" Me and Anya asked in sync.
Inouye sighed, palming his face, and pinching his nose with his fingers.
"He seriously didn't even explain what Zing was?" He groaned then placed his hand on my shoulder.
"Yeah so Zi-" Inouye halted, acting as if he froze. Behind me a familiar voice, the same one I heard back in Osaka.
"Oh heyyy you, I was just talking about you." It was the unknown man, and he once more stood tall over me and Anya.
Inouye's eyes glared at the man, his fists clenched and veins appeared surrounding his forehead. He just stared at Shaun angrily, though I didn't know why.
Anya opened her mouth ready to enter her 'angry mode', she was going to curse him out.
"Hey, you're the guy that took us.. TELL US WHERE YOSHI IS OR ELSE I'LL KI-" My hand swiftly wrapped around Anya's mouth silencing her.
Her muffled protests grew louder briefly before calming down, the man laughed walking ahead of us.
"Well I don't know about his whereabouts right now, but he's definitely awake." He spoke like he was giving us a riddle.
I exhaled in relief but was confused about the tone of voice he used, so I shot a question at him.
"So then is he okay?" My eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, of course. Abara healed him when I brought you three, he was actually the first to wake up." He replied.
"Thank goodness." I said relieved
"Why do you use his name loosely, isn't he your boss?"
Shaun stared at me, "That's none of your business. Your buddy already learned a few tricks when he woke up."
"Tricks? What do you mean?" Does he already know Yon?— I thought.
Anya muffled, finally prying my hand from her mouth, instantly glaring at the man. "You better tell us where Yoshi is, now!" She said, shouting.
Footsteps were heard, echoing from the hallway behind us. A figure approached turning the corner, he stood.
"Yo.." Said the figure.
TO BE CONTINUED.