"We are extremely sorry, Master Cho, we kept you waiting here," Jin and Toma said, apologising.
"No, these two kept me very entertained, just like my grandchild would do," Master Cho said, laughing.
"You have a grandchild, Master? We would love to meet him someday," Toma said with excitement.
"Even I am not allowed to meet him, so sometimes even I forget about having him," Master Cho giggled.
"But don't worry, you two will definitely meet him in the future," Master Cho said, loosening the bag on his back.
"That's a definite event, Master, but don't tell me you forgot what you are here for," Jin said, parking the cycle.
"Your luck, Jin, I didn't forget to take my pills, and so I have brought both the weapons," Master Cho said, placing both the weapons in front of them.
[In the distance]
"What do you think, Riku? Are they here for the same reason as us?" Akio asked, grabbing one of his cleavers.
"As I can sense flux so dense that my body got defensive itself," Akio said to Riku.
"..." Riku didn't respond.
"Ri..." Akio turned to see Riku.
"Riku!" Akio shouted in anger as he saw Riku.
He was still finding a chair for Master Cho to sit on.
"This shi*head always pisses me off," Akio said to himself.
VRRKH!
Akio violently turned his neck with force enough to snap a neck of a normal person to track the movements of those three standing in front of him.
Then...
His eye muscles twitched...
He moved his eyes at a pace of lightning to anticipate any move from them that could make him helpless.
But...
VRAA-K!!
Before his eyes could get into position, all three of them disappeared in front of his eyes, with Toma and Jin walking past him without Akio even processing their movements.
SHIK! SHK!
Suddenly, a hand on the chest of both Jin and Toma stopped them from moving forward.
"Do we know you?" Toma asked Riku.
"I don't think so," Riku replied, adjusting his glasses.
TRK!
Jin snatched Riku's spectacles so fast that Riku's fingers adjusting them froze.
"Hey Toma, see that monster broke my specs. I got new ones," Jin said, laughing.
"Then we aren't in a mood to make new connections just now," Toma said, rolling his sleeves.
"And Jin, don't mess with people like this, just do what we are here for," Toma said seriously.
Jin pulled an insanely distorted, wide-eyed, jaw-dropped expression of absolute disbelief.
GRAAVK! DHK! TRK!
Suddenly, a clean line of pure red blood appeared on Jin's upper lip, but nothing happened to Toma as he suddenly crouched.
With almost the equivalent of Jin's speed, the spectacles were back on the eyes of Riku.
"Ah! At least you should have waited. My brother didn't even give me a compliment," Jin said, without changing his expressions.
"Whosoever you are, let me tell you, I am in a very bad mood and I..." Riku suddenly stopped as...
[Riku's thought]
What is happening? Why is my hair touching the ground? What are these distortions? How is this guy defying gravity and wait... he is standing straight so... Am I held upside down?? Yes!? I am flipped.
ZRK!
Suddenly the zip of Riku's jacket opened.
"Wow! 8-pack abs at this age, normal humans are evolving, brother, and becoming more like arcanists," Jin mocked Riku.
"But I didn't think that you crouched to flip him," Jin said to Toma.
"Because I didn't, but he is really irritating, that is why," Toma replied to Jin.
"Hey! I think you should leave me now," Riku said with a warm smile to Toma.
"Oh! Really?" Toma turned to Akio.
"Why don't you come here to save his a*s?" Toma mocked Akio.
"So you are sure you can take us both at the same time?" Riku asked Toma and Jin.
"Hahahahahaha!" Jin started laughing as he made the face of an animal on Riku's abs.
KRAAVR!
A cleaver suddenly went directly to penetrate the skull of Jin, but Jin at the last moment dodged it by tilting his face backwards.
Without stopping his laugh.
VRRASK!
Out of nowhere, an axe swung with ridiculous speed to cut both hands of Toma, but Toma pulled back his hands, dodging the attack.
THK-DRAK-VRRASH-TAK!
Riku, without falling with the sudden retreat of Toma's hands, put his legs on Toma's chest to use it as a launch pad to land a backflip and finally stand straight.
"Shh! Shh! It's ok, Stormsplit Halberd," Riku said to his weapon.
"Is he talking to his weapon?" Jin asked with a comedic expression.
"That is secondary. Who is foolish enough to make a weapon like this? Tell me if I am wrong, Jin, isn't that weapon highly unstable?" Toma asked, seeing Riku talk to his weapon.
"Yes, it is nothing but a pole and an axe with a one-sided spear, which makes it unstable due to weight distribution," Jin said, thinking Riku was mentally unstable.
"Hey! Sh*t head, your 'stormy' can be made happy afterward. First, let us kill them," Akio said, alerting Riku.
"Oh! Yeah, I completely forgot about these two," Riku said, putting his weapon on his shoulder.
"But isn't killing them too much? We will just cut their limbs," Riku said, lifting his feet.
VRK!
Riku turned around to show them his back.
VSHK!
The moment he turned he raised his left leg, but before it could land on the ground Riku vanished.
DRAAVK!
He reappeared as he swung the axe side of the weapon directly at Jin and Toma's necks, bound to sever both of them at the same time.
"And there, collect their necks, Akio," Riku said, cutting the heads of both Toma and Jin and landing.
"..." A sound of someone laughing by forcefully closing their mouth came.
"We dodged it. At least show some appreciation," Jin shouted while laughing.
"You both dodged?" Riku said, his gaze became more sharp.
CHRK!
Riku suddenly grabbed Jin's hair.
"First you, chatterbox," Riku said to Jin, throwing him in the air.
VRRAKH!
Riku swung his axe side with power to crush Jin's skull, but...
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
Jin suddenly landed devastating punches on all limbs of Riku.
WHOOOM!
Riku jumped and landed near Akio.
Spit...
Riku suddenly started bleeding.
[Akio's thought]
Just as I was thinking there is something very special about that boy. I can just smell how exceptional he is.
"That is why I call you a sh*t head, by his build he is clearly a swordsman, yet with just his fist he made you lose this much blood," Akio mocked Riku.
"Shut up, I would have killed him that time only if the other one hadn't helped," Riku said, keeping his calm.
"So what? Want to change opponents?" Akio asked.
KURR...
Suddenly, a presence above both of them blocked their sunlight.
"I won't stop you from discussing, but can you do it faster? I want to do my warm-up," Toma said extremely politely.
VRRAKH!
Riku attacked Toma with a very irregular rotation of his weapon while standing up.
"Decided. You fight that chatterbox; I will take this shop of overconfidence," Riku said plainly.
"Fine by my side." Akio said to Riku.
"But you, blondie," Akio referred to Jin by his hair color.
"I don't fight people bare-handed, so find a weapon for yourself," Akio said to Jin from a distance.
A smile rose on Toma's face upon hearing Akio say this.
"Oh yeah, my cycle is parked back there, let me make that act as my weapon..." Before Jin could complete...
GHRRAK!
Akio, with a sudden burst of speed, covered the distance between him and Jin using only one of his cleavers, he slashed Jin.
Or this is exactly what I thought just a moment before realising
-Akio said to himself in his mind
"With this slash, you will not live more than..." Akio was interrupted.
Snap! Snap!
Jin snapped his fingers.
"Huh! Are you talking to me?" Jin said, completely unaffected.
Akio's slash was deflected. But by what?..
"Where did my specs go?" Riku asked from the distance.
What Akio had slashed was Riku's specs, used as a shield to deflect an attack from a monstrous cleaver.
"No doubt you are fast. Extremely fast, so before we start I would like to ask you a question," Akio said, pulling out his other cleaver.
SLING! THUD!
Zero closed the door for No. 4.
[Somewhere near Jukai]
"I am sorry, sir, it was all my mistake," Zero apologized deeply.
"Ah! No worries, we can't do anything of things that aren't in our control. Leave it and come to the list you were telling about in the car," No. 4 said, walking on the stairs.
"Just order, sir, nobody in this world knows about that list better than me," Zero answered instantly.
"Then why don't you tell me more about the arcanists of Shinkai?" No. 4 asked plainly.
"Not everybody there is worth your time, so let me tell you about someone that will truly interest you." Zero took a pause.
"About Kuroha Toma and Kurogane Jin," Zero said, opening a door for No. 4.
"Continue," No. 4 said, entering the room.
"Which one do you want me to tell first, sir?" Zero asked, pulling a chair for No. 4 to sit.
"I know about Toma as he comes from a legendary bloodline. Who is this Jin?" No. 4 again pulled out his metal ball.
"Tell me about him," No. 4 said, tossing the ball.
"His history is still unknown to me, but what I know about him is that: he was in Korea until he killed his own master to steal the legendary sword and flee to Shinkai," Zero said, pouring water into No. 4's glass.
"What type of master was that who died so easily by his own pupil?" No. 4 said, his expression full of disappointment.
"Sir, I think you are misunderstanding. Jin's master wasn't a rookie. The reason he died was that the boy he fought was a genius who could make even a fingernail a weapon," Zero said, sitting on the floor.
"You are making me somewhat excited again," No. 4 said, drinking the water.
"His roots are not Korean, they are from Japan, and that is the only reason..." Zero said, standing.
"Don't tell me..." No. 4 said, feeling excitement.
"The only living user of one...
Of....
The...
TWELVE LEGENDARY ARCANIST PATHS,"
Zero looked at No. 4 to complete his sentence.
TKRR-
The chair opposite to them suddenly bent its spine.
"THE MURAMASA MURK....
Am I right?" Someone definitely was present there the whole time..