"FRESHMAN VS SOPHOMORE"

With both sparring partners ready to go, Gaia attacked first as she divided the ground behind her and portioned them in boulders.

'I knew this ain't gonna look pretty from the start,' Kota thought.

She raised the created boulders up in the air and sent them straight at Kai in the form of a rock avalanche.

'Very destructively creative, but Kai could just zoom out of the danger. His speed feats are incredible,' he said to himself.

He soon observed that Kai wasn't moving away from the attack.

'Wait... that's not his plan. He wants to take on the rock avalanche head on!' he analyzed.

'As expected. You are a powerful Daemon, Gaia,' commended Kai, in his thoughts. 'But…'

Kai faced the danger with a straight face. He exhaled, jumped towards the predicament and punched and blitzed through all the boulders within a span of five seconds. In addition, he created an energy wave that sent the crushed boulders right back at her.

"Man…" Kai interjected. 'Still not fast enough…'

Gaia halted all the rocks in place. Kai swiftly hopped and ran, using the rocks as propellers to goofily close the distance between himself and Gaia. Gaia sent razor sharp water whips towards Kai to which he gracefully dodged all of the attacks.

Kai threw a projectile right past Gaia to her complete confusion.

'Here it comes…' he believed, smiling at his brilliance.

She soon got serious and unleashed a giant wave of flames that completely melted all the rocks still in the air. The attack seemingly reached Kai. This made Kota worry.

"Kai!" he shouted.

"Gotcha!" he whispered to Gaia's ear as he shockingly appeared behind her.

Gaia was thrown off causing her to stop producing flames. She looked behind her to see Kai and quickly looked upfront to see his image disappearing.

'What the hell?' she thought.

"And we're clear!" he concluded, excited. "It's alright, Kota. I'm fine."

"No way did you just get out of the flames in a split second," Kota doubted.

"Exactly. I didn't."

In disbelief, Gaia scouted around the ground fiercely with her eyes and saw no sign of the projectile.

"You didn't throw that rock to throw me off. You threw it to swap places with it!" she realized.

"Yup. Correctly predicting, knowing you fully well, that you'd unleash an outburst attack when you'd reach a level of frustration," he confidently said.

"You played me!" she said, literally flaming with anger.

"Hmm... that sounds a lot like Shujin-sensei's swapping technique," Kota assumed.

"But it's not. I saw you burning in my flames."

"Did you now?"

"An illusion technique!" exclaimed both Kota and Gaia, realizing.

"You really took 'taking a page out of the old man's book' literally," Kota complimented, jokingly.

"But how is this possible?" she questioned. 'It's like a fusion of two of Master's techniques. No… it seems like he was test driving this. Like it isn't perfected,' she thought.

'Wait a minute…'

Unfortunately, her thought process was interrupted by Hikari, who called out to Gaia and Kota.

"Hey, you guys! We've got one minute left!"

"Oh no," gasped the two.

Gaia transported herself and Kota out of the scenery.

"I guess everyone fears Sensei, be it a fake or real world," he said, soliloquizing.

'Oh, that's right… I had almost forgotten that I once lived in a fake realm… How memories fade so fast,' he thought.

He recalled the moments he shared with his "friends and family."

<<Meanwhile>>

<<At the training field>>

Gaia, Hikari and Kota arrived just in the nick of time.

"Gather round everyone. We got a problem in our hands," Shujin commanded as the students obeyed.

"The fixtures for the event are out, and Hina here has chickened out. In an impromptu decision, we need a replacement. This opponent won't be a walk in the park. Who's up for it?"

In the stillness of the open field, Shujin's question hung in the air. The students, motionless, their eyes fixed on the ground in front of them. He waited patiently, but his question remained unanswered.

"Oh come on. Now you're all just being cowards."

"Speaking for all of us, I don't think anyone here is physically ready to take him on," Kage clarified.

"I know someone…" Kota raised.

"Don't say it…" Gaia exclaimed.

"Kai's been training his life out. We should really give him a chance. He could potentially dare I say match him in raw strength," he explained.

"No," Shujin declined. "He's not going out there to get himself out of control. And that's final."

"Oh C'mon Sensei," he begged.

"Hate to say it, but I'm with Kota on this one," Gaia unwillingly sided with her friend. "He's clever enough to maneuver his way through well thought out attacks. Isn't putting ourselves out there the purpose of being a Daemon in the first place?"

"My answer remains the same," Shujin stood firm.

<<Saturday, 2nd August, 2017, 10.30AM>>

<<Tokyo, Japan>>

<<Shinjutsu High Battlefield>>

The audience roared continuously.

"Today's the day you've all been waiting for. We are at that time of year. Freshman vs Sophomore. Daemon vs Daemon. In an ALL... OUT... WARRRRR!" announced the commentator, played by Satoru, a Daemon born in the same timeline as Shujin.

The crowd roared even louder.

In the waiting room of the recuperation center, Shujin discussed with his students.

"You heard him. It's the moment the Daemons have been waiting for. Give it your all," Shujin encouraged.

"We're not complete y'know?" Kota insisted. "I can't fill her space. But you're well aware of who can."

"Yeah," Hina agreed. "The new kid was pretty awesome that day."

"You can't possibly think Kai's gonna show up after I strictly…" Shujin began.

<<The door opened>>

"I never did agree on not showing up, did I Sensei?" Kai said, closing the door. "Besides, I can't miss this opportunity for the world."

"Kai! What did I tell you?" Shujin reprimanded.

"You should be resting."

"Yeah yeah. I've had enough of that," he cut to the chase, putting his iron claws on. "Heck, these babies need to go for a ride a little more right?"

He laughed lightly. "You never change— Alright, alright. You win."

"Glad to see you're back in tip top shape. Let's give it our all together, okay?" Chiko requested, fist bumping Kai.

"These Second Years don't know what's coming at 'em," Gaia claimed.

"You said it!" Kage agreed as his body began to glow in green.

The students chattered in agreement.

"It seems it's already clear to us," Kai affirmed, smiling at the task on ground.

"Then there's only one thing left to say…" Kota added.

«Back at the Battlefield»

"RUMBLE!" yelled Satoru.

The crowd cheered as the contenders walked down to the arena.

"And there they are," he highlighted.

"Sophomores and Freshmen, matching down to the battlefield, ready for war. The billboard over there shows the order in which the tournament is going down.

"There are exactly five bouts in this clash and as usual, the best three out of five takes the cake.

"At my left is none other than the mighty face busting cheat code, the interpreter of Martial Arts of all kinds, Sensei Shujin!

"And at my right is the Sensei of the Sophomores. The Daemon of Stealth, Sensei Nakamura, who will both aid me in the commentary of the year against these unique sets of Daemons.

"Now tell me, Shujin, how will your top five best students fare against the top five best students of the Sophomores?" he asked Shujin.

"Hmph. No spoilers. It's better to just witness what befalls you," he teased.

"Now that sounds like what I like to hear!" Satoru announced. "Nakamura, I hope you humbled your students cus they're in for a fight."

"They need no humbling," Nakamura confirmed. "Let's get this squash match over with."

"Oh. That hits differently," gasped Satoru.

"Enough talk. Let the tournament begin," Shujin expressed.

"Shujin, Shujin, Shujin. My man. After all these years, you're still getting used to the commentary stuff, aren't ya?" he questioned. "What I think you are tryna say is…"

"RUMBLE!" the Daemons and Satoru roared.

"But wait!" Satoru expressed. "No event could possibly start without acknowledging the presence of the honored ones. Seated at the Aeon's Chamber, we have with us the War God himself, the oldest and strongest Aeon of ages past, Yahata-Senpai!"

The crowd immediately rose and began to go wild as all and sundry were forced to look above towards the chamber and acknowledge the presence of the strongest Aeon in history.

Seating on a befitting throne, the spotlight shone on him as his royal regalia was seen in all of its glory. With an emotionless expression, he raised his scepter to express his content.

At the chamber, Yahata rose from his throne. With the swift vision perspective change, like that of an eagle's first sight of a prey, he looked towards the empty space behind him.

"Hmm..." Yahata expressed, chuckling. "I knew I sensed your presence nearby, Izanami. What long has it been?"

After a short while, a veil was opened as a Daemon emerged from the open space.

"I guess it's next to impossible to completely seal my presence away from you, Hachiman-kun," the Daemon highlighted. "Way to ruin a nice surprise," he goofily said, chuckling.

"I see you're cloaking yourself away from the rest of the audience— It's an honor to speak with you once again, Izanami-no-Kami," he acknowledged.

Yahata went down a knee and bowed to the unknown Daemon. The second he bowed, the latter immediately squatted in an attempt to reject the humble act.

"Aye yai yai, Hachiman-dono," the Daemon exclaimed, attempting to raise him up. "Why the never ending formalities?"

"My apologies for my constant disobedience, but divine power must forever be acknowledged," he said, still bowing.

"Izanami," he called as he raised his head. "No Daemon of this era has been able to conceal their presence from me like you have demonstrated. I was only able to sense a vague familiar aura leaking out from the veil you created due to your ever growing divine energy."

"Damn it! Oh well, I guess I can't help it." He laughed heartily. "What can I say? It's a real ass pull being the strongest."

<<Back to the battlefield>>

Kai, Chiko, Kage, Gaia and Hikari all huddled to devise strategies they would use to conquer their opponents. The Sophomores with their leader, a familiar face to Kai, stared down at the team to which Kai turned to clash eyes with him.

"You have got to be kidding me," realizing who he was up against.

"At the first bout, we've got the most impressive upstart to the Daemon Community. The one who took us by surprise in his match against a formidable Aeon. The maniacal raging beast with abilities still yet to be shown, the handpicked Chosen Daemon, Kai!" Satoru introduced.

The students cheered loudly as Kai stepped onto the battlefield.

"And next, we've got the Sophomores' leader. The man of his word. The leader of the pack. The unstoppable force that is the mean butt kicking machine, the Core of the Beast, Haku!" Satoru introduced equally.

The students equally roared at the hype-up of the commentator. Haku stepped up to the battlefield and stared down Kai with the intent of assassination.

"I told you we ain't settled yet," he recalled.

"Looks like we've got some unfinished business, Haku."

"Wouldn't agree more, brat," he grinned.

"With both sides ready, there's only one thing left to say…" Satoru raised.

"RUMBLE!" the entire available population yelled.

And the match was underway…

••• ∅ •••

Oh karma, thou art a bloody bitch. Well, I should've seen this coming. The past must come back to bite me, huh? Can I really defeat him?

This is the first battle after all, and these people didn't just come here to witness a one-sided beat down.

I need to set the benchmark. I've gotta raise the steaks. But, most importantly, I've got to keep myself under control…

Open… the gates…

••• ∅ •••