"This fast, I thought you would have countless questions about the reason why I am here," Arashi said, lowering his cap over his left eye.
"Expected. I expected you would have some questions, but..." Sōren leaned down.
"Do you think you've disrupted my plan?
No, you've only reached the part I was waiting for," Sōren said, standing straight.
"Oh! Very good, that means this stage you set for me was not for me. The arcanists going there were never meant to fight me," Arashi said, unbuckling his God Garuda from his back and putting it on his hip.
"Now I understand why you are a genius, but if you had guessed who the stage is for..." Sōren took a pause.
"Then it would be able to crown you the true genius," Sōren said with a demonic smirk.
"Without a doubt, if there is a single person in Tenkoku you would personally test..." Arashi never completed.
"By your this sentence, I crown you as..."
[CUT]
Tik! Tik! Tik!
A child of no more than twelve walked alone in high boots, his footsteps echoing down the deserted private road. Beyond it stretched an empty expanse, vast and silent, stripped of everything except a single building standing at its center.
FSSSH...
A guard in front of the building took a drag from his cigarette.
"Another boring day, I wonder if any fun is written in my destiny," the guard sighed.
SHKT!
The guard turned as he heard footsteps approaching.
"Kid, are you lost? Even if you are, there is nothing here except a closed restaurant..." The guard couldn't complete his sentence.
SHAAAAN!
Suddenly, the whole area was covered with such bright sunlight that opening eyes was like burning the pupils.
SHK!
With eyes closed, when the guard felt the boy crossing him. With just one hand, he stopped him there.
"If you think your parents are inside, this whole restaurant is reserved by a single person, so there is no one inside," the guard tried pushing the boy.
"So leave," the guard said rudely.
"And if I don't?" a voice with heavy sarcasm asked.
"Then I am afraid I need to throw you out," the guard replied instantly.
"Wait! We are coming," voices of other guards came from the walkie-talkie.
"If you don't mind, may I ask how many are there and when will they come?" the boy asked with no change in tone.
"That doesn't matter, sir. 'Cause if you are looking for a fight, I am the strongest here," the guard said, pulling out a katana.
GRAB!
The boy grabbed the arm of the guard by which he was pulling the katana.
"First, answer my question," the boy said.
"What question?" the guard was finally able to open his eyes.
"If we fought, would you give your 100% and not hold back at all?" the boy asked with hope.
"100% against you? Heh! I would pack you up in 0.2%," the guard said with a serious face.
"..." A dead silence spread over the air where you could even hear your heartbeat.
The boy's face became sad as if he wasn't expecting this answer and he was deeply unimpressed by this answer.
KLAK!
The cigarette fell from the guard's mouth to the ground,
mixing with blood falling from his chin mid-air.
KLANG!
The katana, without even coming out fully from the guard's suit, fell straight to the ground before his cigarette.
"Hey! We are here, who was bothering you?" the other guard stopped from the shock.
They surely were seeing something they couldn't describe to another person, but...
CHRAAK!! Schlorp!
At an immeasurable speed, the boy tore his own overcoat, revealing his twin monstrous cleavers, and with one of them...
"Is what we are seeing reality?" one of the guards asked.
The guard was sliced perfectly in half alongside his cigarette, completely locked in his last position with a straight line of pure, hot blood from head to toe.
Drip!
A drop of blood fell from the crescent-shaped cleaver on the ground as the boy put the other twin cleaver on his shoulder with a smile.
"Ki... kill that slicked-back, blonde-haired bastard," the oldest of them said.
FWOOSH! CHRAK! CHRAK! CHRAK!
With a sudden burst of speed, the boy vanished; without even moving his left hand, he made all the guards headless.
Leaving only the old man alive.
"Listen, old man, I know this place is owned by the ninth house. I want the company's filthy president to come here," the boy said, putting his cleaver on the man's neck.
"I will do what I can, sir," the man instantly kneeled.
"You shouldn't do all this, Akio," another boy of his same age said.
"Look who is saying it, Riku," Akio said, removing his cleaver.
"Exactly." Riku was suddenly in the air.
THCK! DRA-THOOOOOM!
At the last moment Riku was about to make the old man meet God, Akio deflected the punch.
And with the impact of the punch, a localized earthquake occurred, shaking the building in the front.
"What are you doing? I gave him a task, didn't I?" Akio was in a fury.
"We already have a target; we don't want any other fight..." Riku said, adjusting his glasses.
"And what makes you think I will follow your orders?" Akio asked, closing the gap between them.
"That is why I said I won't work with a sh*thead like you," Riku said, tying his tied shoelace.
"Don't you think your words are a bit too abusive for a 12-year-old?" Akio said in rage.
"Have a problem with that?" Riku asked, coming close to Akio.
"Yes, I have a very big problem with that," Akio said, joining his forehead with Riku's.
"So let's settle this once and for all today," Riku said, pulling out his weapon.
"Son, if you don't mind, can you tell, tell me this address?" An elderly man with a stick asked Riku.
"I would love to, but I am sorry as I have also arrived here today only," Riku said, bowing to the man.
"No worries, then I will ask someone else..." Before the man could complete.
SNATCH!
"This address is of this place only, old man," Akio said, snatching the paper from the hand of the old man.
"Thank you so much..." The old man was interrupted again.
"We are extremely sorry, sir, this friend of mine is very disrespectful," Riku said, bowing down even more.
"Oh! No. There is no problem in it, although if he had met me some years back I would have taught him some manners," the old man said, smiling.
"A narcissist old man bluffing about himself standing in between the road," Akio said, hiding his cleaver.
"Hahaha! You are a very entertaining boy," the elderly man said, laughing.
GRAB! GRAB! THWACK!
Riku grabbed the collar of Akio and made him lose his balance so he would fall on the ground.
"I am terribly sorry for his behavior; please give me one chance to compensate, please," Riku said, with hope in his eyes.
"You bitch, you will die by my hands someday. You too, old man," Akio said, standing up.
"Hahaha!" The old man laughed, looking at Akio.
"Just like him... you are just like the student I had long ago," the old man said.
"Oh, really! A copy of mine is roaming around, and I don't know about him," Akio said, removing dust from his clothes.
"By the way, what is his name?" Akio asked in an odd way.
"I think you need to reconsider your statement; you are compared to him, he is not compared to you," the old man said politely.
"And the answer to your question, his name is..." The old man's lips stopped moving as his stick fell on the ground.
THAK! THAK! THAK!
An old wooden door made of thick woods opened with the sound of 100 bones breaking in a continuous pattern.
[Somewhere inside a deep forest]
"Mr. Handler, why are we here exactly?" a worker asked.
"Boy, which gate did you go into on the arrival at the academy?" the handler asked.
"Worker class, sir. I am sorry I asked the question," the worker lowered his head.
"Ah! No, I asked 'cause if you would have told arcanist class, I would have beaten you, as they are told what place this is," the handler said with a sigh.
"Still, I need to be in my limit, sir," the worker said.
"Actually, limits can be crossed, as you are my assistant," the handler said with a dramatic expression.
"But..." The worker was about to say something.
"Ok, to your question why are we here: it is to find a suitable weapon for our special arcanist," the handler said, moving forward.
"Special in him, sir?" the worker asked.
"Him? No, it's her," the handler corrected him.
"She is directly admitted into 2nd year and is made a contestant in Apex Convergence. That is why she is very special," the handler said.
"But why only here? What is special here?" the worker said plainly.
"That is because even this place is special. This place contains weapons from around the world," the handler replied.
"But only the weapons that cannot be created back again," the handler said with a smirk.
"But I haven't seen anyone use a weapon kept here," the worker said, touching things.
"That doesn't mean no one uses them here," the handler said.
"Then, sir?" the worker asked.
"This means you haven't met anyone worthy enough to use the weapon made here," the handler said, pulling out a weapon.
"Yeah right, I am sorry, sir," the worker said, lowering his face.
"Why are you guilt-tripping me?" the handler shouted.
"Ok listen, this information is very confidential, yet," The handler stopped.
"I will never forget this, sir, please tell," the worker said with hope.
"Across the generations, many people have used and utilized weapons from here, but among them," the handler took a pause.
"Only a few remain now, that too have one foot in the grave," the handler said, unfolding the weapon.
"And what about the current generation, sir?" the worker asked with curiosity.
"I don't remember properly..." the handler said, thinking.
"Kuroha Toma, wielder of Liǎng Yì from China and..." The handler paused as he turned as if someone arrived.
TRRIIING! TRRIIING!
An old cycle ridden by two people stopped right beside the old man and...
...in front of Akio.