1 Chapter 01

I don't know how I got here, I just remember going from home to the stadium where the first 'Mondo Grosso' championship was being held, which my sister was in the finals. But on the way, I blacked out after feeling the pain in the back of my neck.

When I woke up I was tied to a beam, some masked people passed by but no matter what I said, they just ignored me. My head was racing over why they kidnapped me, it was at that time that I could hear the masked men talking to each other, even though I couldn't get everything.

(Masked 1): "...think... Chifuyu...for him?"

(Masked 2): "...yeah... that's left."

When I heard that, I understood what they wanted, they would use me to make my sister give up the championship. This would be her first championship, and she was in the finals.

I was hating myself at the time, how could I have let this happen? I should have prepared for something like that, after all my sister was getting a lot of support because of this championship, if the other side won, he didn't even want to imagine what could happen to her.

At that time, an explosion happened somewhere close behind him. The masked men were frightened and ran towards the noise, with the exception of two.

(Masked 3): "What's going on? Orimura Chifuyu is here yet?"

(Masked 4): "No! We haven't even said that we are with her brother!"

That was a relief for my mind. At least my sister was not in trouble because of me. At that moment, one of the masked men who went towards the explosion hit the wall in front of me and was erased. I didn't know if he had erased it or died before hitting the wall, and he couldn't cares less about it at that time.

(Masked 3): "Stop there! Who are you?"

(????): "Just a 'Tiger' that was passing by. I saw some bad people kidnapping a child, and I realized that you needed a lesson."

I didn't hear whose voice it was, but it clearly came from a woman, and she had a playful tone to her voice.

(Masked 4): "You-!"

At that time I heard the sound of him moving his gun, but his friend spoke with fear in his voice.

(Masked 3): "Wait... a 'Tiger'? White hair with black locks... gloves that look like claws... a-a-a-are you the 'Tiger' of the [Zodiac Beasts]?!"

(Tiger): "Correct~! Now as a reward for having guessed who I am... you will die."

I got a chill down my spine at the end of her sentence, because I felt like death itself was speaking ... which in the case of the masked men who kidnapped me was true.

At that time they started shooting and I turned my head to try to see who had come to save me. I saw a woman with long white hair with some black highlights and gloves. She managed to dodge all the bullets while running, from time to time she used their gloves to stop some bullets, it was clear that she could see the bullets or anticipate them, as she stopped punching them, one ended up hitting the ground near me when she punched back.

She advanced towards the masked man farther from me and hit him right in the face, breaking even his mask, blood and some white things came out, which after one fell close to me, I realized it was part of his skull, where she got it from, and before the other masked man tried to get more ammunition for the gun she took her hand off the masked man's head and grabbed his neck.

The masked man even dropped the gun and ammunition when she lifted him in the air with just one hand. My eyes widened when I saw how strong that woman was.

(Masked 4): "Wait ... please ... don't kill me."

I realized that he was failing to speak... the woman must have been squeezing his neck at that time.

(Tiger): "Would you have shown pity if our positions were changed?"

The man did not answer and it was all she needed, the masked man began to struggle and soon after I heard a sound of something breaking. After that sound the woman released the man and he just fell, my eyes went wide when I realized that she broke his neck easily.

She came to me and untied me.

(Tiger): "Are you okay?"

I was relieved that she was using her playful voice instead of her cold voice.

(Ichika): "Yes, I am... thank you Tiger-nee-san."

I got up and faced her. It was only at that time that I got to see her face well. She was very beautiful, she seemed to be a little older than my sister, her hair went to her waist and she had black locks that looked like the stripes of a tiger, she wore a black blouse and a white coat, both left the belly off, she wore white pants with black stripes, the gloves, before she was the size of a boxing glove, now she was the size of a normal glove with the same colors of the rest of the clothes, it made me realize that she really wanted to live up to the name 'Tiger'.

(Tiger): "It's okay, kid. Who are you? And why did they kidnap you?"

(Ichika): "My name is Orimura Ichika. And from what I could hear, they kidnapped me because my sister is in the 'Mondo Grosso' final."

(Tiger): "So you are Orimura Chifuyu's little brother..."

(Ichika): "Yes."

(Tiger): "Well, I ended up with all the bad guys. Do you want me to take you to your sister or to your house?"

(Ichika): "I would like to go to the stadium, if my sister's fight is not over."

(Tiger): "Let's see if it's over."

She took a cell phone out of her pocket and turned it on, touched it a little and showed it to me. The narrator was talking about the participants yet, the fight hadn't even started.

(Ichika): "It didn't even start..."

(Tiger): "Did the evil men speak if they had contacted her?"

(Ichika): "When the explosion happened, they commented that they hadn't even called her yet."

(Tiger): "Possibly they wanted her to leave immediately... well, we are not that far from the stadium, I think we made it before the fight started."

(Ichika): "Really?"

She giggled, possibly I was looking funny to her.

(Tiger): "Yes, let's go."

She picked me up, which was a little awkward, and ran. I saw where I was for the first time, I was in a store, and next to the store where I was stuck there were several others. Tigre-nee-san ran until it came close to the punch and jumped on it.

She kept running, and the way the wind was hitting my face she was very fast, it didn't take long for us to get to the stadium, there she put me on the ground.

(Tiger): "There we go."

(Ichika): "Thank you very much, Tiger-nee-san."

(Tiger): "It's okay, Ichika-kun. Now I have to go."

(Ichika): "Don't you want to meet my sister?"

(Tiger): "Not much, but the main reason is that I should meet some friends, they must still be waiting for me."

I realized that she kept her friends waiting, and possibly will get in trouble with that, because of me.

(Ichika): "I'm sorry..."

(Tiger): "Don't worry, they and I are used to it."

She said as she patted me.

(Ichika): "Tiger-nee-san, how can I be as strong as you are?"

(Tiger): "Training, and training a lot."

(Ichika): "Can you train me?"

She looked kind of embarrassed when I asked.

(Tiger): "Well... I don't think a child should go through the training I did..."

(Ichika): "Why?"

(Tiger): "Because it is very difficult... besides, you don't have to worry about that."

(Ichika): "Yes, I do! If Tigre-nee-san hadn't shown up, my sister would have left the championship to go after me. I have to be strong so that it doesn't happen again."

Her expression became serious as she looked at my face after my statement, I just hope I am making a serious face too.

(Tiger): "Are you sure about this?"

(Ichika): "I am."

(Tiger): "If you accept the training it means to be part of the group."

(Ichika): "I don't see a problem."

(Tiger): "And that means facing people more frightening than those who kidnapped you."

(Ichika): "The scariest people can still come after me for the same reason as the last ones who came."

(Tiger): "You can die."

(Ichika): "Chifuyu-nee would do the same for me."

She said nothing, just took a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to me, there was the words, [Zodiac Beasts] with a number just below.

(Tiger): "My number is there... think carefully before accepting... bye Ichika-kun."

She ran quickly in the direction we came, possibly to go and find her friends.

(Narrator): "Ladies and gentlemen. The final of the IS 'Mondo Grosso' Championship is about to begin!"

As soon as I heard that, I went straight to the entrance, where the security guard who had already seen me let me pass and ran to where the participants were.

(Employee 1): "Hey boy, what are you doing here?"

(Ichika): "I came to see my sister."

(Employee 1): "Your sister... and who are you?"

(Ichika): "Orimura Ichika."

(Employee 1): "You're a little late, aren't you? This way."

He guided me to the exact place where my sister was. When I came in, she was facing me talking to someone on her cell phone.

(Chifuyu): "If you do anything with him-"

She stopped talking out of the blue, possibly the person who told those guys to kidnap me was blackmailing her.

(Ichika): "Chifuyu-nee."

When she heard my voice she turned quickly and was staring at me, then she threw her cell phone away and ran over to me and hugged me. At that time I saw how worried she was with me.

(Chifuyu): "Are you okay? Aren't you hurt?"

Usually my sister has a neutral expression when we are away from home, but at that time she had a worried expression while looking at me in full, possibly looking for some injury, which made my guilt increase, as well as my anger at myself because I'm weak.

(Ichika): "I'm fine."

I said that with a smile, I needed to calm her down even a little. At that time another person entered the room.

(Employee 2): "Orimura-san, it's time."

(Chifuyu): "But-"

(Ichika): "Chifuyu-nee, I'm fine."

She looked back at me with the same worried expression.

(Ichika): "Go there and show that you are the best in the world!"

She gave a small smile, and her expression returned to its 'neutral state' as it followed the employee. I watched the whole fight from that room, since there was a monitor there. As I always knew, my sister won.

And while she received the public's applause and praise, I made a promise to myself. I would get stronger... I would not be more of a burden to my sister... I would not allow her to have that expression again because of me.

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