"Although I am not very old, but out of every battle I have fought, you are the strongest one I have ever faced," Akio said, lying down on the ground.
"Huh! Shouldn't I pass you, the cleaver?" Jin said, seeing Akio.
"The cleavers..." Akio said, turning his neck.
One twin of his pair of cleavers had a crack spreading across its blade.
The other pair of the cleavers had Riku's lens, which Akio himself had slashed before, deeply carved into it.
"I didn't expect my punch to be so strong that it took the ability of yours to speak," Jin said, mocking Akio.
"Ahhh!" Akio groaned, standing up.
His clothes were torn, with many minor injuries spreading across his body in a pattern looking like someone hand-drawn them with a lens.
"I never knew a lens could be such a dangerous weapon," Akio said with a smile.
"I also didn't know about it. Do you know a person that could do this?" Jin asked, putting his hands in his pocket.
"Well," Akio smiled with genuine appreciation.
"But because I anticipated a situation like this would arise, I kept extra blades for my cleavers," Akio said, picking up both of his cleavers.
"Wait! Those enormous blades are replaceable? I thought every time they broke, you would need a new one," Jin said plainly.
"To solve this problem, and as I can't be the strongest without them, that is why," Akio said, changing the blades.
"Are you the strongest because of the cleavers? Then what are you without them?" Jin asked.
"Your daddy," Akio just smiled.
"Huh!" Jin's smile froze.
[Jin's thought]
What is this aura? Is his flux leaking? It is like he is forcing it out. No, he is just letting it flow without restricting.
But what the hell was that reply!!!
WHOOOM! BLOOOM!
Suddenly, all the injuries given to Akio by Jin vanished as his pupils rotated suddenly just to change their color the next second.
"Don't worry, you will be the one to witness it, that too today," Akio said, his face not visible due to the flux release.
KRAUM!
Akio coated both of his cleavers with flux.
KTHRAK!
Jin, without coating his punch, landed a direct punch on Akio's chest.
SSSSSSSSH!
The area where Jin landed his punch started burning so hot that it started generating smoke.
"Is that all you got, genius?" Akio said, taking that punch and not moving.
"Nah!" Jin made the oddest expression.
"Serious already? At least let the night fall," Jin said, removing his hand and standing straight.
"I repeat myself, I won't fight a person without weapons," Akio said with a smirk.
THUD!
Jin put a hand on his shoulder.
"I am so sorry that we won't be fighting anymore," Jin said, rubbing his eyes to act like he was crying.
"Listen to this carefully. Nobody leaves the battlefield when I start to enjoy a fight," Akio said, coming extremely close to Jin.
"Looks like you are more interested in kissing me than fighting me," Jin said, pulling his face away.
"My cleaver will cut your lips so deep that you even won't be able to kiss any girl," Akio said, raising his weapon.
"Valid reason for me to fight you now. But ah..." Jin said, looking here and there.
"Oh yeah, this bicycle as a whole will be my weapon," Jin said, holding Lucian's cycle.
"Do I look like that easy of an opponent to you?" Akio felt this was a disrespect to him.
SLING! FWOOSH!
A clean diagonal line of Akio's cleaver's slash merged into the thin air before reaching Jin's cycle; with that, Akio vanished.
"..." Akio mumbled something from behind Jin.
"Oh, so you are behind—" Jin didn't even turn fully as his smile vanished.
KRRRRAKSH!
The cycle he was holding fell down to the ground not as a whole but in pieces, leaving just two halfway-slashed rods of the cycle.
And in the next second—
SHRAAK-!
Jin's torso was diagonally cut. The cut reached his organs, bypassing bones.
Jin lost all his jokes, sarcasm, and odd expressions in an empty brain just thinking how to survive this.
VSHK!
Akio suddenly appeared right in front of Jin, very close to his face.
"Does your question of a kiss over a fight," Akio smiled,
"Still exist?" Akio's smile turned into a devilish smirk.
[BLACK SCREEN]
[Meanwhile in Jukai]
KRRSHHH---
The table across the room turned into a block of pure ice.
Trrip...
The person opposite to No. 4 touched the frozen table.
"If you are here 'cause you think I won't be able to save my boss, then you must run to save your own a*s," Zero said, his tone dead serious.
"And what makes you think I am here alone?" The voice came from behind the darkness.
"Heh! I can't tell you how good this day is going," No. 4 said with a smirk.
"Even if you don't say, I saw every move of yours, and don't worry, I am not here to fight, nor..." The man was interrupted.
"Even if you were here to fight, you would have lost," Zero said, his hand freezing.
"Please don't say it like that, I feel very scared," the man said, faking fear in his tone.
"I think I need to teach you a lesson," Zero said, moving forward.
"Can you?" The man from the shadows started to move.
TIN! TIN! TIN!
A sudden wave of sound from the inner bells of both the people capable of fighting in the room started arising.
BWOOOOOOOOOOM!
They both suddenly unleashed their flux, cracking the window.
"And you have nothing to say,
GRAND DUKE PETROV?" A woman's voice echoed in the room.
GRAND DUKE PETROV
Number 4 Right-hand man:
President of Jukai Zero
A war veteran
"Ah! Madam Rouge, I never thought you would be here too," Grand said with excitement.
Madam Rouge
Number 2 Right-hand man:
President of Hyogo Raijin
A glamorous
businesswoman
"It looks like you weren't expecting me," Rouge said, leaning on the chair.
"I thought you trust Raijin so much that you wouldn't care to move your delicate legs out of rose water," Grand said, teasing Rouge.
"Hahaha," Rouge giggled.
"You are right, but I moved myself to see this," Rouge said, pulling out a paper.
"That's the information of the Kuroha Clan, and it also contains all the information of Toma," Zero said, looking at the paper.
"How do you know about it?" Grand asked Zero.
"'Cause it is the one I created for you, for you to know everything about all the contestants participating in the convergence," Zero said, his tone dead calm.
"Then," Grand said, standing, "may I ask for it back from you, Rouge?"
"And I am in no mood to return it, Grand," Madam Rouge said, standing up.
Ffffffff-
Suddenly, the air inside the whole room stopped moving. Rather, the air itself turned into ice, and the objects instantly turned into a block of ice.
"This might not be a complex technique of mine to fulfill every wish of my sir, but it is enough for this wish," Zero said, his fingertips covered in pure frost.
"..." Grand smiled, completely unaffected by Zero's technique.
DMPH!
Madam Rouge, completely unprepared, fell on the table by her own weight, but before she could fall on the ground—
RIIK—ZZT!
A sudden burst of lightning from the man in black broke the whole frost in the room, just before catching the falling Rouge.
"If you wanna fight, why don't we go outside?" Raijin said, keeping his calm.
"Why not. Do I have permission, sir?" Zero asked Grand.
"Zero!" Grand said, eyeing Zero.
"..." Zero stood back, understanding what his master ordered.
"Rouge, I would let you have the paper. First, tell me what I will get because I don't see any benefit of mine in this deal," Grand said, letting Rouge stand up.
"Two things: money, and the location of the sword," Rouge said, stabilizing herself.
"..." Grand's pupils contracted.
"If you have the location, why aren't you taking it yourself?" Grand said in suspense.
"'Cause the person wielding it is out of my league," Rouge said with a smile.
"She is bluffing, sir. The location of that weapon is impossible to get," Zero said, pointing at Madam Rouge.
"I thought the same, but this morning something happened," Rouge said plainly.
"And what exactly happened?" Grand asked, almost impatient.
"I sent one of my handlers to get a weapon for one of my arcanists in the deep forest," Rouge said.
"So what? All four of us do that for our arcanists. What is..." Before Grand could complete—
"He met Master Cho there," Rouge said with a smile that could make anyone fall for her.
"..." The room went silent as Grand and Zero's faces froze, but then...
"Your cheap tricks and useless lying skills aren't fooling us," Zero said to make Grand alert.
"You..." Grand's lips moved.
TCHU!!
Rouge's index finger touched Grand's lips, stopping him from speaking.
"Heard your arcanist will be meeting the Absolute Weapon tonight?" Rouge said, coming close to Grand's face.
"And who is he?" Grand asked in utter confusion.
"It's not your mistake; I didn't let your servant tell you about him," Rouge said, pulling back her face.
"Raijin!" Rouge ordered Raijin to open the door.
"Just for the payment of the list...
...The sole wielder, or simply thief, of the legendary sword
KUROGANE JIN," Rouge said, leaving.
[Tenkoku]
"Master Ren thought you would be training your new student," June said, taking a drag from her antiseptic cigarette.
"Do you think she needs that much training?" Ren said, standing right beside her.
"Not really, she is talented, and furthermore her Sensei is the strongest in the three worlds," June said, teasing Ren.
"The compliments for both of us are very limited, but they are impactful, but leave them. I am not here for them," Ren said, pulling out a paper.
"I could find no better medic than this beautiful girl in the three worlds, that is why I am here," Ren said, handing the paper to June.
"But whose reports are these?" June said, turning the pages.
"Let that be your test. I am sure you know whose report was the first one," Ren said, pulling out a cigarette.
"I can say these are of three persons not more than 12, and all are arcanists, right?" June said, diving deeper into the reports.
"Yes, you currently have a perfect score of 100," Ren said, taking a drag from his cigarette.
"..." June stopped turning the pages.
"These three... who is this boy? He has dissociative identity disorder (DID), but what's making me surprised is he has 17 alters!" June said in utter shock.
"..." Ren didn't respond.
"This one has... are you even serious, Master?" June said, turning the pages.
"And this... this is of someone's left eye. What do you mean—" June suddenly stopped, realising something.
"This is Arashi's—" Before June could complete.
GRAB! CROUCH!
Ren suddenly grabbed the shoulder of June and pulled her down.
KTHOOOOO-KRRAAASHH!!
The massive window in front of them broke into pieces.
Before anyone could realise what had just happened.
THIK! FWSSSS!
A lighter was lit to light the cigarette of....
"Sōren, you are the toughest opponent I have ever fought," Arashi said, sitting on the sofa nearby.
Taking a drag, "I know."
[To be Continued]