37 Toshi Twins

They had all moved to a large banquet hall after the ceremony had concluded for a feast. Azrail and Akimitsu were in the seats of honor and were eating and chatting. Because of their prestige, everyone was too intimidated to speak to them, other than a simple greeting and paying their respects.

Arata, Akari and Ryouma had snuck out and were hanging out by a small pond behind the main building of the Sato Clan. Arata stretched and yawned.

"I hate these events. So much effort."

Akari chuckled.

"Well, you are the Heir to the Sato Clan, so you are going to have to get used to this."

Ryouma chuckled. The three chatted happily for a while before Arata turned to face the trees by them. He sensed something. Akari looked over.

"What's wrong?"

Arata stayed quiet. Ryouma stood up and stared at the trees too.

"I feel a strong heat coming from there."

Arata nodded. Akari's brows furrowed as she stood up and looked at the trees as well. A large fireball shot out from the trees. Ryouma stepped forward to block it. He clashed with the fire ball and pushed against it with his own flames. Fire on fire.

As he continued to struggle against this giant ball of flames, the fire changed color and increased in temperature. Ryouma looked grim as the power had increased now. He roared as he summoned more flames to push back. With much effort he was able to take a step forward, pushing the flames back a little. He caused a surge of flames to appear before him and he pushed with all his might, finally able to deflect the flames and send them away. Ryouma was breathing heavily now.

"The Sato Clan truly found a gem."

From the forest, two men walked out. One wore the black and silver robes of the Sato Clan while the other wore the white robes of the Ise Clan. They both were handsome men but their demeanor was very different. The one in the white, who was the one that spoke, stood tall and proudly, and had a noble air to him. The other one was slouching a little, seemingly timid and shy, not wanting to be seen. Ryouma, however, was shocked to see that their demeanors were different but they looked exactly the same.

Arata laughed.

"And he's our gem. You came too late."

The man in the white softly chuckled.

"We did indeed. Young Master Akari, why didn't you snatch him up when you had the chance?"

Akari shrugged.

"He offered his services to Arata, not me. I think he is more suited as a Shadowguard anyway."

Ryouma was looking around confused. Arata chuckled.

"Let me explain. The one in the black is one of my Father's Shadowguards, Toshiharu. The one in the white is his brother and one of Akari's Father's Lightwielder's, Toshihiro. I discussed it with my Father and Uncle Aki, they will be your new teachers."

Ryouma went wide eyed as he smiled. He was excited at the prospect of growing and becoming stronger. Toshihiro smirked.

"Are you going to greet your Teacher's?"

Ryouma instantly bowed before them.

"Disciple acknowledges his Teacher's!"

Toshihiro nodded in satisfaction. Toshiharu stuttered in response.

"D-Don't b-be so f-f-formal. P-Pleaee stand u-up."

Ryouma rose slowly. Arata nodded.

"You will have your first lesson with them tomorrow."

Toshihiro nodded.

"We will see you nice and early. Till tomorrow."

The twins waved goodbye as they walked away. Ryouma bowed as they left before turning to Arata.

"They seem incredibly strong, although Teacher Toshiharu seems quite timid."

Arata nodded.

"He is. But he's a terror on the battlefield."

Akari agreed.

"Toshihiro is an extremely powerful warrior, he has singlehandedly turned around the tides of a war under my Father. However, even with his strength and vast intelligence in regards to battles, he still has never defeated his brother in a battle."

Ryouma looked over in shock. His shy and timid teacher was the stronger twin? That didn't make sense. Arata was amused by his confused face.

"Just wait till tomorrow and you will see. The feast should be finishing soon, so let's head back."

The next day, Ryouma had woken up early to train with his new teachers. Arata was called over to speak with his father. As he entered his father's study, Azrail was sitting at his desk. Arata bowed before taking a seat in front of him. Azrail gave Arata a serious look.

"You now have a Shadowguard, so you know what that means."

Arata nodded.

"I must start contributing to the Sato Clan's glory."

"Correct. And as the Heir to the Sato Clan, you and your Shadowguard will need to accomplish many missions for the Clan."

Arata knew all of this. Within the Clan, there were requests and missions given by other Clan's or families that the Sato Clan would accept and fulfill. Other members of the Sato Clan would also request and set missions if they couldn't do it themselves. As the Sato Clan was so prestigious, the missions they were requested to do were mostly high level missions. And, being the Guardians of Darkness, they were also made to do missions involving the worst the world had to offer. Azrail had gotten Arata to accompany him on a few of these missions growing up, so Arata knew what they were like. Azrail grabbed a file from his desk.

"This is your first mission. I have already requested the time off for you and Ryouma. You will set out in four days. If all goes well, you should be back in 2 days."

Arata went serious seeing the file. His first Clan mission. It was an honor as well as a lot of pressure. Arata nodded as he took the file.

"Yes, Father. I won't fail you."

Azrail nodded.

"I know. Spend the next few days going through the details with Ryouma and decide how you want to approach it. We will grant you a small carriage to get to the location. We will also give you an allocated amount of Gems to get the rest of what you need. The rest is up to you."

After talking with his father, he went to the Clan's training field to check on Ryouma. Ryouma was sitting cross legged in a small dome. Toshihiro had his hand on the dome and was chanting. Ryouma was sweating inside the dome and was clearly trying to focus. He was obviously in a lot of pain. Arata came over and whistled.

"Damn. I feel like Ryouma is just getting constantly tortured since he met me, ya know?"

Arata heard a little giggle and jumped in fright. Toshiharu had suddenly appeared behind him and was quietly chuckling to himself. Arata pretended to be mad.

"Why do all of you Shadowguards do that? Can you just move like normal people and stop appearing out of nowhere."

Toshiharu chuckled softly.

"S-Sorry Young M-Master. Force of h-habit."

Arata watched Ryouma for a second.

"Increasing the temperature consistently while pressuring his body with Energy force and restricting his breathing. That is some torturous training."

Toshiharu agreed.

"It is. B-But it is needed."

Arata turned to him.

"Why are you letting your brother train my Shadowguard? As his senior, it would make more sense for you to do it, no?"

Toshiharu shyly smirked.

"T-That w-was the original p-plan. B-But we decided n-not to kill him a-a-accidentally."

Arata nodded. Toshiharu had a unique Energy Reservoir that required him to constantly hold his power back. In terms of explosive power, he was the strongest Shadowguard Azrail had. But due to his immense power, it was hard to only send out a little, as a little bit of power for him was a deadly amount for everyone else. So he was reserved with his power and personality. Arata had actually never seem him use his power as he was forbidden by the Clan Elders from using it inside the Clan as he had accidentally destroyed the main building once, before Arata was born.

His control was better than then, but he was still reserved about it. Arata meditated and continued to cultivate until the end of the day when Ryouma finished his training. When they got back to the South Dorm, Arata brought Ryouma to his room and explained to him the Clan missions and that they were now expected to perform some, now that the ceremony of him joining the Clan had finished.

Ryouma looked excited to go on a mission for the Clan.

"So what's the mission, Captain?"

Arata placed the file in front of them as he grinned.

"We're going to kill a group of Forest Drakes."

Forest Drakes were descendants of Earth and Wood Dragons. Dragons were solitary, powerful creatures that caused great chaos and destruction whenever they surfaced. They had intelligence and made a truce for peace with humans and other races many generations ago. Their children that couldn't become full dragons became lower life forms. Over the years, they evolved into many different sub species of creatures.

Forest Drakes were one of these subspecies. They retained the features and some of the powers of their Dragon bloodline, but they were smaller than the great dragons. However, they would gather in groups and grew in power as a pack of Drakes, than by themselves.

Ryouma nodded.

"So is this a request to protect somewhere? A village being tormented by the Drakes? Is there like a few that come out now and then?"

Arata sighed.

"Unfortunately, no. We aren't going to defend a village. We are going to avenge one."

Ryouma froze. He went quiet at this. Arata continued.

"A village to the south of us were completely wiped out. The Forest Drakes swept through, killing almost everyone there. There were only a handful of survivors. From the reports, the Forest Drakes have grown to a number that is too high for their territory and must go out further for food. This is where the danger lies. The village was their first attack but there will be more if we leave them alone."

Arata pulled out a map.

"They are supposedly somewhere in the Everflower Forest by the village. We have scouts out there currently, trying to find the Forest Drakes nest. They are specialists and will be able to get in and out without the Forest Drake's knowing. Then when we have the location, the two of us will go in and eliminate the nest."

Ryouma frowned.

"Just the two of us? Against a whole nest of Forest Drake's? That's insane! And even if we can do it, are we really going to just wipe out a full nest of creatures?"

Arata sighed.

"I believe the two of us will be enough. And, unfortunately, it must be done. When creatures with Dragon blood kill and eat a human, they have in part broken the truce the Dragon's made with the humans. If they stay alive, some could use them as tool to say the dragon's have broken their side of the agreement and cause chaos amongst the public. If they overturn the truce and go to war against the Dragon's, death and casualties will increase. This is what we are trying to prevent."

Ryouma went silent. He understood this. There were many that wanted to go against the dragon's. Some for profit as Dragon's were known to have immense wealth, and the different parts of a Dragon's body were worth a lot as well. Then there were the 'Purist' maniacs. They were humans who believed that humans were above other species and creatures, and a treaty with the Dragon's, a lower race, was something despicable and lowly for the human race.

"But Captain, it isn't like the entire nest attacked the village. Must we kill them all?"

"Can you tell the difference between a Forest Drake that ate human flesh and one that hasn't?"

Ryouma went silent. Arata continued.

"Even those from the pack that didn't participate in the attack are still a part of the pack and will be seen by some as guilty tools to use. It is cruel, but it is to prevent those with evil intentions from using a massacre to forward their agenda. We can't let them use the deaths of the village to manipulate the public and start a war."

Ryouma nodded.

"There are a lot of politics involved in this mission, Captain."

Arata agreed.

"Most of the Sato Clan missions are like that. We do the cruel jobs in the shadows that no one else can. This is a cruel mission as the Forest Drakes don't deserve a death sentence for being hungry. But that is the way of the world. For peace, it must be done. And we are the one's that must do it."

Ryouma stayed silent for a while. Arata let him process for a bit before standing up.

"Think about it over the next couple days, we don't leave for a while. It's late, we can talk more in the morning."

Ryouma nodded and bowed before leaving. Arata went and looked over the information again. He had gone with his father on missions much worse than this, so he was mentally prepared for a mission like this, but it made sense that Ryouma was a bit hesitant about the mission. Arata didn't like it either, but he understood the need for it to be done.