Local Tale

2 Years later. . .

The forms of 2 men can be seen flashing through the trees, vanishing here and there. The man on the left puts his hands together and an explosion of energy sweeps out. The man on the right jumps into the air then punches out a small condensed wave of energy clashes with the blast.

The clash of both attacks stops and their smoke begins to clear. Both men drop to the ground catching their breaths.

"Ryuji you have become better at controlling the amount of cosmo you use with greater efficiency."

"Let's stop for now there is a village up ahead, we can stop to resupply and rest."

Ryuji nods his head then changes out of his wet clothes.

They both begin to walk towards the village. The village is smaller in size to Darkshade and Negal Village, the guards out front see them coming and walk forward.

"How are you travelers doing today, are you here to stay or just passing through?"

Shijima walks forward a little and speaks to the guard.

"We are just passing by, we want to resupply then get on our way."

"Sure, we have a tavern and a few stores in the village they should have anything you might need."

The guards move out of the way and allow Ryuji and Shijima to enter. Many people can be seen moving about talking, the children running about having fun, and the men are working.

"Ryuji you walk around, I'll go and get our supplies for the rest of our trip."

Ryuji walks away and finds a group of people talking next to the inn. The 3 men our huddled up together talking in a quiet manner.

Ryuji walks closer to the building and begins to hear their conversation.

"Did you hear the story of the reaper's armor, the armor of a fallen god ever hungry for souls. It is said that sometime soon cavern will open up and anyone who enters will be tested through a gauntlet of trials. Whosoever, passes all the trials will be able to acquire the armor from the grave of its last holder."

At the talk of a reaper armor Ryuji begins to feel a connection to something. He can't tell what it is but, it's as if a voice is calling out to him.

Vana's voice enters into Ryuji's mind.

"Ryuji something is resonating with your soul, I can feel it sending out pulses in that mountain a mile from the village. Whatever it is, it wants you to come to it, I can't sense if its malicious or friendly."

"I'll meet up with Shijima then move from there, if it's as dangerous as they say Shijima will be helpful."

Ryuji enters the tavern and orders 2 rooms with the owner. He sits down at a table then tries to sense the pulse Vana mentioned. His cosmo pulses out into the area, sweeping to the mountain far away from the village. When his senses reach the mountain it comes up empty, he couldn't sense anything.

Not getting any results, Ryuji stops then rests and enjoys the laughter of the drunk men around him. A while later Shijima enters the tavern and walks over to Ryuji.

"I sensed you release your cosmo what have you found?"

"Their are stories in this village about an armor, that will can be acquired soon. When I heard that I felt a presence reach out and call me to it. That mountain a mile from here is where the presence comes from; I couldn't sense any presence with my cosmo sweeping the mountain so I have no clue."

"Let me see what I can find."

Shijima raises his senses and notices many lines of fate connecting to Ryuji traveling towards the mountain.

"Whatever this armor is, you and it are tied together by fate and many strings of fate at that."

"Stay in the village, while I go to this mountain and check it out."

Shijima stands up and makes his way out of the village towards the mountain. Ryuji bored with staying in the tavern gets up and walks out. He walks around the village and notices 2 boys harassing a dog with rocks.

He stops walking and is about to stop them when a boy with golden hair with a black robe jumps in front of the dog protecting it.

"Please stop." Says the boy.

"Isn't this one of those weird losers from the orphanage, a weakling like you shouldn't be getting in our way."

"Yea go back to the church and paint your stupid paintings loser. Now give us that dog!"

One of the boys grabs the dog from the boys arms.

"Wait, I'll trade you this ink I bought from the market in town for the dog. You can trade this ink in for a lot of money."

The boys grab the ink then toss the dog back to the boy and begin to walk away.

"That's good your okay."

Boom!!

The body of one of the boys goes flying from a kick to the face. Another boy with brown hair appears kicking the boy hard.

"Idiot, if your getting messed with come get me, I'll protect you!" Says the brown haired boy.

The 2 boys grab sticks and charge at the boy, swinging at his head. Just before the sticks would hit, Ryuji appears and grabs the sticks.

"Why don't you guys leave it at that and call it a day?"

The 2 boys seeing the big man stopping their attacks, drop the sticks and run away. The brown haired boy walks to the golden haired boy and helps him up.

"Thank you sir, but you didn't have to intervene." Says the brown haired boy as he flexes his arms.

"I'm strong so I could have easily handled trash like them."

Confidence radiates off of the boy like the sun in the sky. The golden haired boy walks over with the dog.

"Thank you sir, I am Alone and this is Tenma, we appreciate you helping us." Alone bows his head to Ryuji.

"Relax, don't bow to me I'm not someone important like that. The name is Ryuji by the way, Ryuji Shiba. Now then I'm going to keep walking around enjoying the air, you boys stay safe."

Ryuji walks away with a smile on his face walking back towards the middle of the village.

"That boy with the brown hair is interesting, he has a small amount of cosmo within himself. He hasn't unlocked it yet, but I couldn't sense it fluctuate right before the boys would have hit him with the sticks."

Alone and Tenma, walk back to the orphanage and talks about what just happened.

"Ryuji looks strong Alone, I want to train and become strong like him someday. Standing in front of him is like standing in front of a peaceful bear. You can see that it is peaceful, but a bear is still a bear. One false move and he could have killed us quite easily."

"Yes he was a nice person, I wonder if I can draw a painting of him, that ferocious aura flowing off of him like death incarnate."

The boys enter the orphanage and go about their day. Back at Shijima he stands in front of the mountain sensing for any energy or movements within its depths.

"I can't sense anything, I wonder what it was that Ryuji sensed reaching out towards him."

Shijima stops sensing around the mountain then makes his way back to the village. Underground in a coffin the armor resting on the skeleton begins to glow and radiate a heavy cosmo.