10 Saizō Tsukuba

Saizō Tsukuba, of the Karate Club, was left stunned as were many upon the outcome of the fight they had just witnessed. On one end was the rising star of the Karate Club, Makato Daimonji. A man of average skill and talent, but possessing a physique that made him an unstoppable force.

And on the other end was Issei Hyoudou. A boy of no talent who had been at the club for many years, practising diligently but always never progressing far. To Tsukuba, he was an insult and a stain upon their club, but because he paid money to train at this dojo, Tsukuba couldn't simply kick him out. So as he had begun doing for the past few weeks since becoming the head of the Karate Club, he had those weaker trainees fight against the stronger.

It was his aim to make them quit and therefore make the Karate Club stronger.

Daimonji was an individual who was set to become the figurehead of the Karate Club, someone that would become a valued member of their organisation. Yet in a single instant, all that had come crashing down.

Issei Hyoudou, that aforementioned weakling had defeated Daimonji in a shocking fashion. 'How did he do it?' Tsukuba question, looking upon the unconscious figure of Daimonji, his head having smacked against the floor with a hard impact. Issei himself stood over him, arms extended and eyes equally as wide as everyone else's.

But there was a smile on his face, one Tsukuba recognised.

It was the smile of someone who had practised a technique numerous times and was finally seeing the fruits of their labour. 'But where did he learn such a technique? We don't teach something like that here and certainly not to weaklings like him?'

Then there was a clapping sound, one that broke the air of silence that had befallen the dojo. Muttering filled the room, a few of the weaker students who had been bullied constantly by Daimonji beginning to join in with the applause. However, Tsukuba and his students those that had been deemed to be more than capable of leading the future of the Karate Club remained stunned, arms crossed and silent.

However, Tsukuba was drawn to the figure who had broken the silence. It was a pretty boy, someone who had attracted a great deal of attention when he joined Issei earlier today. But instead of doing something of partaking in training he simply remained standing at the side of the room near Issei.

Tsukuba had dismissed him outright and focused upon his own training. 'Was it him?' Tsukuba questioned and as if sensing his gaze, the pretty boy looked directly at him. There was a moment in which neither did anything, the pretty boy continuing to clap along with everyone else. Then he smirked and Tsukuba clenched his fists tightly, teeth-gritting as he glared at the figure.

'It was him!'

-X- Line Break -X-

Issei surpassed my expectations.

Though that had already been a pretty low bar in the first place, but it was impressive nonetheless. I had honestly expected Issei to lose, yet he had won so good for him, he was slightly less of a pathetic martial artist than he was before.

But I was right as was Saechōrō, the martial arts and the training I had undergone over the years was leagues beyond anything they were teaching in standard dojo's. Mainly because a lot of it was do or die, teetering on that edge of death constantly. As a human, that was the only way to succeed and close the large gap between the various supernatural factions that existed in this world.

We may possess the largest numbers, but even the weakest Fallen Angel, Devil, Angel, etc was far beyond even the strongest human. Sacred Gears, Gu Rituals and martial arts were ways designed to enable us as a species to close that gap.

But if one were to slack off for even a moment then it would be impossible. It was probably why humans continued to be playthings for the supernatural factions of the world. It was also why a guy as lazy as me had trained so hard and brutally despite having hated every moment of it in the beginning. I needed to survive and training in that fashion was the only way to succeed.

I suppose I should count myself lucky that I had developed a routine, I wouldn't say I grew to enjoy it, but it became a part of my daily routine of life. Still a chore though.

Anyway, I was getting off track, Issei had won and I learned something else about this world. High School DxD, Highschool of the Dead, Kengan Ashura/Omega, Black Lagoon and now, Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple. That was the amalgamation of worlds I lived in, that I knew of right now. It was highly likely that there was many, many more so I was living by the code of expecting the unexpected.

I honestly was playing through my mind every possible scenario that could possibly happen in this world. Two Saiyans turned up and started destroying shit. Some megalomaniac cast an illusion upon the moon and caught everyone in the world in its snare. Humans were selected to battle Gods in a tournament to save the world.

You get the picture, a lot of shit could go wrong and I was simply expecting the worst.

But as I am right now, I don't really know where I rank and attacking the Rias Gremory who if I remember correctly is related to Satan, would be a stupid decision. But if I remember correctly, there will also be Fallen Angels in a Church, but again me turning up and killing them would also make me a suspicious individual.

It's highly likely that I'm stronger than Rias and her peerage, I would expect as much with all the shit I've gone through, but that doesn't worry me. What does worry me is the overpowered motherfuckers she's connected to.

The last thing I needed to do at this point in time was attract the wrong kind of attention from them. No, it would be best to cultivate a good, friendly relationship with Rias, then start to reveal myself. If I can get Rias to want to make me a member of her Peerage then that should provide me with some protection. I won't accept it, Mikoto didn't serve anybody, but Rias wanting me as a member should keep people from trying to kill me for a little while.

Though if things did get really bad then I might accept simply to buy myself more time. Survival often called for desperate measures and at the end of the day, I would be more than willing to humiliate myself so that I can live to fight another day, my pride be damned.

Nothing was more important to me than living and that was the end of it.

'But this world is different to any of them that I know. Issei, he's lived here for much longer than I have, I'll need to get information from him. If Ragnarök does exist then it's highly likely that the much stronger organisation, Yomi does as well. Which in turn means Ryōzanpaku does as well.'

That was a lot of potential foes, but also a lot of potential opportunities as well.

Hearing movement ahead of me, I felt a smirk come onto my face, turning down a small side street and reaching a dead end. 'Now then, let's see how strong the members of Ragnarök are.' Keeping my hands in the pockets of my jeans, I turned around to see the alleyway filled with a group of guys around the same age as me.

Each of them belonging to the Karate Club my brother went to. The largest of them at the back, being Daimonji himself. And slowly the members parted to reveal Saizō Tsukuba.

I had seen the look in his eyes in the dojo, he'd figured out I had a hand in Issei's victory and he was angered by that. Personally, I thought it was stupid in bullying your source of revenue into quitting, but teenagers aren't always the smartest bunch.

"So then, you gonna give me some speech about kicking my ass for insulting you, or can we cut straight to the chase and get straight to the fighting?" I asked and in response, a dozen guys rushed towards me.

They were slow.

Fists and kicks were thrown in my direction yet they were so overtly choreographed and so easy to predict that I barely had to move at all as I avoided the blows with ease. More often than not my opponents got in the way of one another, bumping into someone and sometimes hitting their teammate.

It was laughable really.

But it was also pretty pathetic. 'These guys, they're only slightly above an amateur level. Hardly worth any notice.' My eyes trailed towards Daimonji and Saizō. 'It's those two I want to test out.'

And so, as I leaned my head to one side, allowing the fist to miss my face by mere inches. I drove my right knee into my assailant's stomach. He gasped out, spittle bursting from his mouth and eyes bulging as he dropped to the ground wheezing and heaving.

But I wasn't done, my right leg not even touching the floor before I spun around, a hook kick smashing into the jaw of one, then carrying around into another, and another, and another.

Six guys were hit, the telltale sign of jaws breaking as they spun rapidly through the air before collapsing to the ground unconscious.

As my right leg returned to the floor, I continued with the momentum of my spin and swung my left leg round. A roundhouse kick that came round and slammed into the side of another, picking him of his feet and throwing him into his remaining teammates and knocking them to the ground.

It was quick brutal and effective, just as I liked it.

"Damnit!" But what I didn't like was the fact some of the spit from the first guy had gotten on my clothes. "Disgusting piece of shit!"

-X- Line Break -X-

Saizō looked upon the sight in shock, breathing temporarily halted as he struggled to comprehend just what he had watched. Those guys were his best men, his strongest fighters and yet they had been beaten with ease that Saizō couldn't understand.

'This guy can't be for real!' Saizō froze in shock as he watched the guy he once believed to be just a random pretty boy glare at him. But Saizō couldn't pay any attention to that, just watching as the alleyway seemed to be swallowed up by a dark figure. 'This guy, he's overwhelming, not even the boss could beat this guy! What have I done?!'

"Oi, fuckers." Mikoto cut through the silence of the alleyway. "I'm pissed off now, so I'm going to kick the shit out of you until I feel better. You best fight back otherwise I'll make it worse on you."

Both Daimonji and Saizō gulped taking a fearful step back as they watched Mikoto take a step towards them, hands never leaving his pockets. At that moment both had the same thought, recognising the error of their decision.

'We're fucked.'