15 Chapter 14

Saya quickly moved away from the temporary housing of their team. He felt that the recently completed conversation would begin again, and this infuriated him even more. He believed that Marek was one of those club-makers who say everything he thinks is open, but it turned out not. Ogre loves to gossip! And what about? About Ichigo. A man whose strength and abilities did not leave anyone interested, only Maria, since she was most likely grateful to the "Poong team" already for bringing her to the Fourth Floor. The owner of the orange katana himself did not hide that he was interested in the abilities of the red-haired man, but he also said this right away, on the forehead. There were no games of the mind, there was no catch or hidden intent! Only animal interest in the incomprehensible. Sai, with all his nature, wanted to know the nature of Ichigo's strength and, not disdaining his feelings, he immediately informed about this.

Soon Saye's attention was drawn to one interesting conversation:

- Well, you heard! - Yaro screamed under the drunk man, hanging over his fellow friend. - In the "Tomb of beginners" a real beast settled in, just a monster!

The man on whom the drunkard was hanging, staggered, throwing "ballast" into a puddle on the ground. A small, tipsy group of people was around the corner of an old bar.

- Well, why are you ?! - Having fallen directly into the puddle, the drunkard howled in an inhuman voice. - So I get up and roll you!

- Shut up! - Grozno said the third, pouring the contents from his glass bottle onto the head of the first. - Do not yell about the "Grave of beginners" in broad daylight. - He said in a half-whisper and finished what was left in the bottle.

- What were you talking about, funny people?

Saya walked silently. As if the shadow of a grinning drunkard decided to suddenly stand up.

- Baby? - Loudly surprised the one who dropped his drinking companion. Taking a step back, turning to the guy who approached, he tripped over a man lying in the mud and clumsily flew down.

- What do you want? - The third looked at the guy suspiciously. Let him look like a child, but this is the Tower! Here danger lurked at every step. - Come on, come on! There is no place for children. - He was clutching the boy's shoulder, as a sharp, unbearable pain in his leg made him fall to his knees.

- Do not touch. - With disgust, looking at the drunker's face disfigured by pain, Saya grabbed him by the throat with his right hand, his left hand, cleverly removing the katana from his belt, he pierced the second leg of a man, which he did not break like the previous one. - Say what you were talking about and what does "Tomb of the Newcomers" mean?

- I will say, I will say! - Through the foam and saliva, the wounded man mumbled.

There were few people near the seedy bar, and those who passed by pretended not to see anything. Therefore, Sai did not hesitate to once again roll the blade of the blade at the foot of his victim.

Mumbling from hellish pain in one leg and looking at the other with fear, the man, afraid to lose his life, hurried to tell everything:

- We talked about the recently appeared "monster" ... - he began with the topic of their conversation, continuing to breathe heavily. - About the man who fights in the "Tomb of the Newcomers" ...

Noticing that the man was starting to suffocate, Sia slightly relaxed his hand on the man's throat.

"This is an arena ..." he explained. - Fighting there, you can earn a lot of money. Therefore, newcomers who have only tasted despair and pain often go there. Some to earn money, others to fame, well ... and still others, he swallowed apprehensively, looking at the grin of a guy holding his life in one of his hands. - And still others are looking for their death there. And most often, all newcomers get the third option. That's why that place was nicknamed the "Tomb of the Newcomers."

- Where is she located? - Saiya's fingers clenched again on the man's throat. Glancing at the other two, who, with bated breath and, having scaredly hatched their eyes, looked at their wounded drinking companion, he did not deprive them of a contemptuous look.

- Not far here. - The man twitched, hoping that soon his suffering would end. - In the quarter of the poor. There is a large building, it weighs a canvas with a red rhombus and a yellow circle in the middle. - He explained quickly.

The drunkard's face was again contorted in a grimace of hellish pain and despair that they would kill him soon, but, opening his eyes after a minute, he no longer saw the terrible boy who had broken his leg.

***

Going forward purposefully, he became more and more convinced that the air was saturated with the smell of blood and salty sweat.

Passing by a bull standing near the front door, as if it were a closet or part of a dirty nook, Sia looked around. Now he was walking along the corridor. Surprisingly clean corridor filled with din and noise coming from the front.

Soon the guy was at the entrance, where a large sign hung from above.

- "The Tomb of the Beginners." - Saya arched an eyebrow, reading the clumsy handwriting of the writer of this pathetic sign.

Having entered the spacious room, which could accommodate about five hundred people, the blond immediately rushed to the edge, pushing people along the way.

The noise of voices reigning here, which was occasionally interrupted by the voice of a judge watching the battle, began to put more and more pressure on Sayu. Little by little, he felt hot and uncomfortable here, and after a couple of boring fights, he was seriously thinking about coming here when it was quieter or when there were not so many people.

"And now what you have been waiting for so long!" - As if hearing the pleas of the blond, the judge of the underground fights said. "Here ..." he waved to his left. "A champion, a real gladiator who escaped from the Coliseum!" Beginner Killer!

With every word he heard, the noise of music grew louder, and the cries of people turned to an animal growl and wild cries. They had little blood that the participants of previous battles had shed, they had few spectacles and drinks that were carried by long-legged girls with animal masks on their faces.

"You really want blood ?!" - The lips of the newly appeared soldier stretched out in an abominably wide smile, showing the audience yellow teeth.

The crowd immediately reacted to the man's words, filling all the free space with consonant screams.

"And now the guest of which you all know very well!" - The man in the center of a huge, stone ring pointed to the right. - He burst into our hearts and thoughts, like thunder and lightning! Suddenly he became a favorite! To those who easily and without pity destroyed their opponents! A real monster!

Saya turned his head to the left. Only the presented fighter entered the arena only a few minutes later. All this time the crowd was dominated by that disappointment - for a moment they thought that the battle would not take place; it's terrible excitement when the named person nevertheless appeared. Alcohol and bitter smoke had long clouded their minds, even Saye felt uneasy, but he continued to watch. Like a dog who was waiting for when they drop a bone or stroke her ear. He walked unhurriedly, as if he was dragging out time, and the more he incited the wayward crowd of onlookers eager for massacre, blood and cruelty. And what was the blond's disappointment when he saw some tattered man instead of Ichigo in the arena.

The man who appeared in the arena was two heads below his opponent. All in tattered rags, smeared with mud, which seemed to have eaten even into his skin. He went to the judge, losing the sole from one of his sneakers on the way. She just pulled away and was now lying halfway from the center of the ring. He held out his hand to the judge, who, turning his nose, smiled wryly, nicknamed the "monster" guiltily bowed his head, running his second, no less dirty hand into his black, smeared in some kind of thin hair.

Saya closed his mouth with his hand and curved his lips in a contemptuous grin. How could he even compare this wretchedness that was hiding under a half-broken mask from Kurosaki. This man was not at all carried by that force, that power, that certainty which the red-haired angler possessed. From him he carried more soot and stink of the restroom. This rascal looked pathetic on all counts.

- And I will remind! - As if ignoring the presence of a beggar, a drunkard and a homeless person in one person, the judge of today's tournament said. - That the winner of today's battle can become the owner of one hundred thousand! This is a considerable amount for the champion ... - accompanied by joyful cries, he waved towards the "newbie killer". - So it is for only a rising star. - Without much enthusiasm, but under no less noisy applause, he pointed to the so-called "monster."

Saya leaned on the massive, stone railing of the arena. It seems that the owner or owners of this place have taken care of him fame. The huge room was well lit, especially the arena.

"And now what you have been waiting for so long!" - The judge yelled under the unremitting crowd, heading for the exit from the arena. - The battle!

The hefty carcass of the "rookie killer" instantly burst. The mountain of muscles easily crushed the stone floor of the arena in the place where his opponent had recently been.

- At least something. - Blanched exasperated blond, losing interest in the battle.

Called the "monster", he only did that he jumped here and there, exhausting his opponent. Because of its size, the "rookie killer" was too awkward. His broad shoulders and sweeping movements only covered his view, preventing him from orienting himself and understanding where his opponent had gone. Soon the battle was over.

Clutching his chest and breathing heavily, the "newbie killer" barely got to his feet, bringing with his last strength a huge fist over the enemy's head.

Saya did not understand until the very end of what it was that the audience liked this dirty and smelly drunkard, until all the people in the hall were suddenly silent.

- Yes!!! - The crowd exploded, watching how the debris of the human body scatter across the arena.

From the huge body of the "rookie killer" there were only legs lying in the middle of the arena.