Chapter.8: The Blue Striker

Itsuki finally opened her eyes, she looked in the direction were everyone else looked in astonishment. She saw who saved her from almost having her head smashed by the stray gauntlet. This student was male as well, around 5'10. His body was covered in baggy clothes but had a defined muscle build hidden underneath them. He wore a beaten-up combat jacket from the Army, the hood of the jacket hiding his face save for the mouth area where three small scars ran down the left side of the face. He wore regular jeans and boots with a backpack carrying a motorcycle helmet and damaged dog tags attached to his belt.

The students were in awe of his presence, he appeared out of nowhere. It was like a scene where the hero arrived in time to save someone from a life-threatening injury. Just the look of him made everyone wonder where exactly did he come from.

Ryuji glared in bewilderment that the new guy destroyed his gauntlet that easily in front of him from a far distance. He had to have had a great sense of control to do that with that much speed and reaction. Hiro was looking over the new student carefully, he could see the fist that fired the flames, that and the other hand that was tucked in the pants pocket wore special gloves with a silver demon face on the backhand and a silver large bracelet with holes in them.

"Oh ho, seems someone wants to join in on the fun. Well, I'm game, hey new guy, you going to stand there all stoic or are you coming to play too."

The new student didn't speak, he kept staring down at Ryuji. His hand lowered itself, planting firmly in his pocket like the other hand was. He slowly walked his way to the crowd that was glued to his direction. Ryuji's veins in his face piled more. He felt disrespected by the lack of introduction from the new student like he was cocky just because he blew up that gauntlet.

"Tch, well if you won't come here, then I'll just come to you." Ryuji formed a new gauntlet and dashed forward to the new student. He wasn't going to take that quiet nature of his like that.

The new student took a deep breath, his other hand removed itself from his pockets, and he tightened his hands into fists, the sound of his fingers and knuckles cracking from the intensity put into them. He stood his ground waiting for Ryuji to make his move. Ryuji was in front of the new student, he thought he had a clean shot, but he was dead wrong. The student's eyes pierced through the shade from his hood covering his face as gazed at Ryuji. Nobody saw it in time, it was a quick strike that needed a trained eye to notice.

The new student punched Ryuji in the solar plexus, the blue flames shot out of the demon's mouth engulfing the fist in the flame. The intense burn greatly pained Ryuji, it sent him flying back by twenty feet. Everyone was greatly shocked at how much power was put into that punch, especially against someone with Ryuji's build to be sent flying like that. With a devastating punch of that strength with that build of his compared to Ryuji, the new student had to be trained in martial arts it was the only real explanation that could be surmised at that moment.

"I recognize that technique. It's a breathing technique to gather Ki flow to create powerful attacks with a perfect balance. The strike as well was not something an amateur would have pulled off. That guy waited for Sakurai to get close, he perfectly timed that hit using the momentum to backfire against Sakurai making the blow even stronger. That takes training to pull that in that split moment." Ren commented observing every detail he witnessed in that scene. The way the first rotated into a spiral punch hit Ryuji, along with the flame magic behind it. There wasn't a chance for Ryuji to prepare to defend against that unless he had foresight abilities.

"Son of a….."Ryuji groaned as he was utterly furious with what just happened. He felt humiliated by being hit like that by someone smaller than him. He made new stone weapons in response to the attack against him. He formed a new pair of gauntlets, boots, and even armor for his upper body and head.

"Idiot, just stop, are you trying to get expelled over stupid pride," Ren yelled. Ryuji didn't care he was too angry to listen.

He charged forward, his speed was incredible with all that armor on his body. The new student wasn't fazed at the display in front of him, he felt more annoyed that Ryuji couldn't take the hint that he wasn't in the same league as the new student. Ryuji sped up his charging tackle to the new student. He was finally within range of an attack he wanted to make a hit with. He threw a haymaker at the new student, the student bent backwards dodging the hit with ease.

Ryuji slammed his fists downward in a hammer strike, the new student stopped it by using a kick to the stone fists, hitting the foot and holding the downward strike like it was nothing. The force behind the kick exceeded Ryuji's, and soon the leg kicked Ryuji off balance, he saw the new student's leg positioned upward pointing to the sky. The students watching were awed at the flexibility the new guy displayed, more again in astonishment he kicked such a powerful strike like that with very little effort.

'How the hell did he do that? He's smaller in frame than me, he hasn't even moved an inch from that spot either. He's just playing with me now at this point. Cocky little prick. I'm going to break his skull for that!'

The new student pointed at Ryuji, he gestured for Ryuji to come here with his finger. Ryuji's teeth ground at how much anger was blowing up inside him. He launched the gauntlets first to try and catch the new student off guard, that proved to be of no avail at all. Ryuji believed it made enough of a distraction that he made a new set of gauntlets to follow up on the attack. The new student raised his hands up in a fighting pose, and when Ryuji saw him move his hands he disappeared in an instant. Everyone was shocked thinking he teleported, a skill an Esper could do by breaking their bodies down at the molecular level and realigning themselves again in another spot. But that wasn't the case, he only pulled himself into the ground with his brute strength, then sprang himself back up positioning himself behind the new student.

"Got you now! Dodge this!" Ryuji threw his strongest punch yet at the new student.

The new student wasn't fazed. He took in another deep breath, the blue flames busted out again from the gloves. Ryuji swung at what he thought was the new student's head, but it was an afterimage.

"What the?"

He like everyone else was confused at what just happened. There was no way the new student was fast enough to avoid a punch at that close range like that. At least that's what the untrained eye would have believed.

In a flash, the new student was now the one behind Ryuji, Ryuji had no time to react properly against whatever was going to happen next. He didn't even see how the new student got behind him so quickly.

"Hiyou Ryu(Secret Weapon Style), Mienai Hiyaku(Unseen Leap)."

The new student said in a soft tone mixed authority behind it.

The new student then positioned his hand in a knife hand move, he thrust a karate spear hand-style hit onto Ryuji's back. The thrust was so strong it shattered the entire stone armor in one go, the force behind it knocked him back again, his face planting itself on the ground as his back twitched uncontrollably from the attack.

"Bukai no Kata(Unbreakable Style), Tetsu no Kiba(Iron Fang)."

Ryuji struggled to move, he felt like his spine was severed from the blow, and the pain made his body go into a temporary painful paralysis. Ren recognized the move, his eyes almost popped out his head from the recognition of the move the new student had just used, it was a pressure point attack aimed to paralyze the spinal column creating a 'hellish' nightmare of pain throughout the body. Making it worse if the one who was it by it attempted to move.

'That technique, those moves, I recognize them. That person, he couldn't be her student could he?' Ren's eyes popped as he recognized the movements and the few moves in that instance. He seen them before but only from one person and that person was a woman, it begged him in his head if this new student was that woman's heir.

"That's enough!" A powerful voice shouted, and the echo of it boomed throughout the area the students watched. Everyone turned to see who it was. The voice came from the current Headmaster of the school, Anna Takemura.

The school's security ran to the students to diffuse the situation. They detained Ren, Ryuji, and the new student. Natsume gave them a detailed report of what happened, the officers went over the notes now having a clear picture of what between those three. Ren was let off due to his defending himself, Ryuji had an anti-power bracelet put on his wrist as punishment, he wouldn't be expelled but he was going to be assigned cleaning duties for a month as penance. The guards didn't leave the new student yet. He had his hands up in the air, peacefully surrendering to avoid a bad situation.

Anna and Natsume walked over to the new student for questioning, his appearance and skills interested Anna, especially his gloves.

"I'm Takemura Anna, the Headmaster of this school. That jacket and dog tags you're wearing are from the Army. I know you're not enlisted yet for your age so you must have gotten those from a family member I suppose. Those gloves though, are custom are they, judging from the make of them they were designed for control and close range combat. You must have some connections to get a high-quality design like that. You also must be a student here too since you just happen to show up here coincidentally."

"Yes. To all questions Mam."

"Well, that settles it then. From what I heard you saved Shirayuki from being severely injured and acted in self-defense as well. You're off the hook but I don't want you using those moves on a student again unless on authorized training grounds, understood."

The new student saluted her in respect. She could tell he was from another military family or at least attended a military boarding school from how he carried himself including the salute.

"Well, that aside what's your name soldier?"

The new student pulled off his hood to answer Anna respectfully. Everyone saw his face finally. He had a handsome face that made the girls blush even with the scars. His hair was a mid-long length with long bangs down his face.

Itsuki saw his face too, the hood being off let her see it better from where she was standing. The sight made her cry. Not from him being handsome, but from what she recognized. The hair he had was the darkest shade of midnight blue, his eyes garnet colored, and the most defining feature. A white ribbon was tied around his neck like a choker. Itsuki couldn't mistake that ribbon from anymore, because she only gave it to one person in her life.

"It can't be." She said sobbing in happiness.

"Hayashi, Hayashi Koutetsu Mam."