Ren had used the sheath of his sword in a split second to block the palm strike from connecting. If the sheath wasn't as magic as the sword was too the palm strike would have shattered the sheath in the moment. The force behind the strike was powerful enough to send him flying black a few feet, Hiro tried to catch Ren after he barely escaped the shots fired at him by Barnaby, getting a few cuts to his face in the process.
Barnaby yawned in boredom, he was getting disappointed now at the display of skill from the two boys. They couldn't keep up solo, let alone work together to fight against him and Gentaro in at least a good unison.
Gentaro had decided to wait for the boys to get themselves in a stable mindset, he sat down cross-legged meditating while Barnaby started snacking on the jerky he had in his pocket.
Ren and Hiro regrouped to catch their breath and come up with a strategy to win.
"He's strong. I greatly underestimated his abilities. His attention to detail on the guns he makes from their model, firing method, and ammunition is perfect, to top it off he's a genius at improvisation. That's what it means meeting a chaotic force that's untamable." Hiro said while trying to stop his panting.
"Indeed. The skills used on me far exceed my current level, Kurosawa-Sensei didn't earn his reputation for nothing. He wasn't using a single bit of magic the entire time. It was all his own natural Ki abilities from years of fine-tuning his body with his martial arts training." Ren had responded in turn.
"Yes, they each have a strength that works in their complete favor. Barnaby with his Projection can reconfigure the guns into any weapon he wishes without fail. Kurosawa-San is the apex in the martial world. How do we fight them as we are?"
Ren took a deep calming breath, and he slowed down his heart rate to a normal rate while restoring his Ki flow in a proper fluctuation. He got back up on his own two feet without Hiro holding him anymore, stretching his neck and shoulders out.
"We have to work together. Fighting them by ourselves one at a time is futile. They may have just met up today but their instincts and mutual respect make them a strong pair. If they work together in unison we won't win. We have to strike first before they do so. If one is a relentless storm then we need to be an indomitable mountain. If one is a master hunter we must be a prey he can't outwit in the jungle."
Hiro understood the analogy better than anyone else would have. Hiro gave a short laugh as he cleaned the dirt and half-dried blood off his face again before standing up. He regenerated the silver bow into a recurve-style bow for faster shots, Ren got back into his stance, concentrating his muscles in his legs and forearms.
"You ready?" Ren asked.
"Yes, let's go," Hiro responded aiming his bow at the two in front of them.
Ren shot through like a lightning bolt, instead of going for Gentaro, he went for Barnaby. Barnaby was caught off guard in the moment, Ren was much faster than Hiro. He was thinking Ren would attack Gentaro like earlier, so he wasn't able to react fast enough to make the proper weapon against Ren. Barnaby tried to stop Ren with a Remington shotgun configuration, but Ren's speed was faster than the pellets that came toward him. Barnaby switched to twin Uzi machine guns, but still, Ren wouldn't be stopped. Gentaro broke out of meditation, and he went in to help Barnaby fight off Ren's charges of tenacity. Hiro predicted he would interfere, so he fired an arrow at Gentaro who dodged and went after Hiro. Hiro saw it coming, and he smiled as Gentaro missed what Hiro was aiming at and had planned to keep him from attacking.
The arrow that Hiro shot at earlier had burst apart into small ones digging their way into the ground. They then sprang up out of the ground, reforming into chains that wrapped themselves around Gentaro's leg trapping him in place.
Gentaro tried to break free, but the energy chains would electrocute him when he touched them. Hiro turned his attention to Barnaby, and he fired more arrows that broke into smaller arrows again. Barnaby tried to aim for both attacks, but Ren caught up to him and sliced his guns in half when he couldn't keep up with both boys working together now.
"It's over." Ren went for an upper thrust to Barnaby's chin with the blunt end of the sword handle.
Barnaby smirked, he was prepared for that.
"Ren, look out!" Hiro tried to warn him but it was too late. Barnaby had created guns in his sleeves in the shape of Derringers earlier in the match as a backup plan if one of the boys got close to him. Both barrels aimed at Ren's eyes.
"Bullseye!" Barnaby fired the guns, Ren yanked himself down by pulling his shirt by the collar to dodge the shots enough were they barely grazed the top of his hair. Ren then made a sweeping motion with the sword, using the back end of the blade to strike Barnaby's kneecaps, upsetting his balance in the process from the pain.
"Mitsurugi Ryu, Diroku no Kata(Sixth Blade Form), Mizuo Utsu(Whipping Water)."
Hiro took the chance to shoot arrows at Barnaby's wrists and ankles. Locking him down like he did to Gentaro earlier.
Barnaby had to admit defeat, he got himself tricked into that one and was pinned down now preventing him from continuing the fight.
"Well you got me niños, I'm out. But uh, what about that other wild horse you failed to tame?"
Ren's eyes widened, he turned to see that Gentaro was gone, he broke out of the chains somehow, and his eyes darted around till, at the last second he saw Gentaro standing behind Hiro with his eyes glowing.
"Behind you!"
Hiro tried to turn around in time to defend himself, but Gentaro was too fast. He dislocated the boy's wrist that held his bow, then fired multiple point strikes at his body putting him to sleep.
Ren tried to steady himself, but Gentaro was already in front of him, his speed was greater than Ren's. Gentaro wasn't going easy this time, he was using more power than before making Ren realize how easy Gentaro could have beaten them earlier if he were serious.
"You did good boys, I'm proud of you both for your teamwork. But, experience will always trump youth."
Gentaro used a palm strike with a more powerful force on Ren's chest than before. Ren couldn't catch his breath, and that hit incapacitated his lung's airflow. Gentaro followed up with a spear thrust strike to his solar plexus afterwards. Ren tried to stay standing but he was fading fast, Gentaro, in a show of dominance flicked Ren's forehead causing him to fall back as he passed out finally.
Everyone was shocked. Gentaro beat them both in that quick a moment. They all understood right then and there like Ren did, he was holding back throughout the match.
Gentaro ripped the bindings off Barnaby, helping him back to his feet.
"Well what do you think, they got a shot at beating us in the future," Barnaby asked with admiration in his tone.
Gentaro looked a the boys, they were being helped up by the medics. He gave a faint smile before walking back to his chair.
"A sword gets stronger over time with temperance. Someday they'll be better ones than us. I look forward to that." Gentaro walked off, with Barnaby understanding what he meant. He too was looking forward to them growing up to be fine men in the future.
The audience cheered for both sides, the match was incredible. Anna was happy with the results and the publicity it was bringing. However, when the time came, she could see on the girls' faces how scared they were for what was coming next.
Megumi finished off her last bottle of iced coffee and ramen bowl. She let out a much louder burp before tossing her garbage aside.
"Now then, it's my turn to play." The tone in her voice made Akira go pale, and even Alexandra felt a chill running down her neck. Megumi slapped her face a couple of times, it sobered her up instantly thanks to the amount of coffee she drank beforehand. She leaped to the center of the arena destroying her seat in the process. Gentaro and Barnaby hadn't gotten out of the ring yet, Barnaby was past his limit with her behavior.
"Hey, now that's enough. You're supposed to be an instructor for this place, show some damn restraint will you?"
Megumi slowly turned her head, her eyes glaring at him, the fear she created was a horrifying pressure.
"Get…out…of…my…ring!" Her voice echoed with command. Barnaby choked as he felt like the air was being sucked out of him. Gentaro tried to steel himself but even he couldn't handle the pressure.
The two men hurried out. Anna was shaking from that show of force. Itsuki was terrified to the point that Rina had to hold her hand to calm her down and herself.
"Oy Toranoko, hurry up, I waited all this time for you let's get to it." Megumi was ordering. Kousuke wasn't in the seats with the others. He was in the locker room the whole time the matches were going on. One of the students ran back to the locker room to fetch him before things got out of hand.
Megumi was getting impatient, her irritation was high as her eyes twitched. She took a deep breath and then let out a scream that shook the entire arena.
"DETE KOI!!! HAYASHI KOUSUKE!!!!"
Everyone covered their ears. Megumi's scream echoed everywhere telling Kouskento come out, the pressure was hurting them and the fight hadn't even started. Tatsuya clung desperately to block the echoes reverberating in his ears with his headphones. The pain was intense causing his eardrums to bleed a little, not even he could pull off that scream without his Skill helping out.
"You're still a loudmouth as ever, eh, Shishou."
Megumi looked at the entrance on the boy's side, the wicked smile on her face forming.
Kousuke walked out, he was prepared for his match. He wore trunks with short spats underneath. Tape on his ankles and around his hands. He had on his special gloves still wearing Itsuki's ribbon on his neck. Megumi enjoyed it, she could tell he was ready.
Everyone saw the burns on his body. Itsuki imagined him shirtless a few times but she never actually saw him that way in real life. She now knew why he refused to remove his shirt when she was helping him earlier. He didn't want her to see his body that way. She, Rina, and Natsume looked horrified at his damaged body.
"My god, what has he been through?" Natsume said trembling.
"Is that why he was so terrified of her? Did she do that to him? They look so wicked, how did he live all those years with those all over him" Rina said.
Itsuki trembled. She didn't want to see him get hurt not after how his body looked. She held her hands together like she was praying keeping the small sobs from leaving her eyes.
'Akane-San, please watch over him.'
"Oh ho, you look like you're ready to play. What's with that ribbon anyway, being fashionable now all of a sudden? I remember when you wore that stupid red headband thinking you were that video game character. What was his name again, Ryu or something, during our training days? Haha man, you never change."
"None of your business and never call Ryu's headband stupid. Now, are you going to get serious too and get rid of that jacket?"
Megumi cackled, he remembered her very well in all this time. She took off the jacket and her shoes, and she removed a pair of gloves from the jacket pockets just like his before throwing the clothing to the side of the arena that was away from the audience. The clothes broke through the surroundings they hit, nothing could cause that with just normal clothes.
"What in the world was that?" Alexandra asked.
"She wears weighted clothes," Gentaro responded. "Her jacket and shoes had weights sewn into them. That's why the crash was that intense. That's not all look at all the food she ate and drank. What do you notice about her body?"
All of the instructors looked carefully. They caught on in a second and were shaken.
"She ate hundreds of items worth of food and drank nearly twenty cases of beer but she looks the same. How is she not gaining weight or is she even sober?" Barnaby was completely in shock.
"She's a Prime Caliber. I knew it the moment I met her. That boy is too but she's leagues above him. If she was eating all that food she was storing energy for this match. Not only that the Headmaster speak with me earlier before the matches began to disclose some information she also found that in case we needed to step in and handle her. That woman there is a Deity of Killers."
They all looked like they lost their souls in that explanation. It was unheard of to them.
"Hey wait, weren't the Deity of Killers trained to be on par with Prime Calibers? How's one carrying that title? I thought the whole point of that program was to make soldiers surpass them wouldn't the program have kicked her out if she was one?" Barnaby questioned. He heard of the program too during his service days but thought it was an urban legend to scare bad guys.
"Takemura-Kocho looked more into it after something felt more off about her before the matches began. Like you most of her records had been blacked out except for the ones that allowed her to be hired. Her former employers had no bad recommendations for her either other than her eating habits and personality but it still felt like a setup to. She did more digging including calling in personal favors, and she finally learned after all that there was one candidate in particular in the program who unlocked her potential as a Prime Caliber halfway through the program. The program kept her as a way of having a Prime Caliber under complete Black Ops control. Not only that the particular Prime Caliber in question is said to be the strongest and killed over a thousand Ghasts in a single night including a Grand Lich. There was a title for that killer...Chinojoo; The Bloodshed Queen. We're looking at her right now, Kuramori Megumi is that killer. That boy is in serious trouble"
The instructors were shaken to their cores, and the chill that ran down their backs turned to paralyzing fear.
"Buddha has played some strange tricks on his poor boy. A woman like this seems to have been purposely made like it was done just for Hayashi-Kun. Doesn't it feel preordained in that way?" Akira questioned wondering if the Gods did this on purpose for a greater plan.
"Not our place to question. If it is so, then that boy has a greater role to play in the future and who are we to demand an answer from the heavens?" Gentaro gave his two cents on the matter.
Megumi put on her gloves, her fingers slowly cracking in excitement, she was anxious to fight Kousuke now that he was grown and worthy of a challenge. Kousuke cracked his neck and knuckles as well to show he wasn't afraid of Megumi.
"Hehehe are you ready Toranoko? It won't be like when you were a kid I'm not gonna go easy on your ass anymore."
"Shishou before we start I want to say something." Megumi looked confused at the request. She blinked her eyes as to what brought that on.
"I'm sorry! How I ran from you earlier. It was just a reflex after all the hell you put me through. Truth is I want to say, thank you. You trained me and took care of me when Mana-Haha left. I was at my lowest and you stepped in when you didn't have to. Shishou, you're practically family to me. You may be crazier than an unhinged sociopath at times but I still cherish you. So thank you Shishou for everything." Kousuke told her with honesty as he bowed his head to her.
Megumi was taken aback hard. She never heard him thank her once for anything in that manner. She closed her eyes and remembered the times they had together, from eating large amounts of food, bathing together in a hot spring, and even Kousuke taking a nap with his head on her lap. It made her feel happy that he thought of her that way after all this time.
"Hmm, family huh? Someone like me being called family that's the first I've been called that." Megumi whispered it to herself. She was in disbelief to hear those words, not every day a killer is called something so affectionate. "Kousuke, I did miss you when I had to leave the academy. I never took a student on before or afterwards. Those were good times, weren't they? But."
Megumi flipped her switch again. She was back to her wicked self giving Kousuke the evil eyes.
"That won't save you right now. So, are you ready?" Megumi asked in a soft menacing tone cracking her fingers again as they fidgeted with impatience to fight. Kousuke nodded.
"Yeah, Shishou, Omae o Kami Chigitte Yaru(I'm gonna bite you to death)!"
The referee was too terrified to start the match. Even the girls in the announcer booth didn't call the introductions for them like the others because of the seriousness of this fight. The ring didn't have a fancy setup either like before, instead barrier rods sprang out encasing a dome around the two to prevent any accidents from happening in the fight.
Kousuke and Megumi leaped to each other yelling not caring about waiting for someone to start the match, their long-awaited fight had begun.