1.19: The Bear!
Franco and Makoto were left alone now that Yuro departed.
"Listen, Franco. If you have a plan in mind, at least tell me." Makoto said.
"Huh, what are you talking about."
"Everything you've done up until now was not out of instinct. What are you trying to gain out of all of this?"
"I want an entire guild facility all to ourselves. Could you imagine what we could-"
"WE KILLED A MAN! Do you think it was worth going that far just for a FACILITY?!"
Franco stopped smiling and sat on the sidewalk, staring at the sky. "Makoto, do you remember the day we formally met?"
"Why the sudden change of topic?"
"What was it that we promised each other?"
Makoto exhaled. "It was to succeed as ronins, whether as a team or rivals. I know all that, but…"
"That guy you said we killed, didn't we do it?"
"Uh, yes, it was-"
"Then there is your answer! I'm not doing this for myself but for the both of us, dude. We will get that facility, the whole guild together, ask out our crushes, and have plenty of parties!"
As much as he tried to keep a straight face, he laughed and handed Franco a fist pump. "You are an idiot."
As much as the two rivals came to reconcile, a scream came from above them.
"...aaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"
THUD!!
Adrian came landing right before them while still holding onto his chest.
"Wha… Adrian!!"
Makoto came to see what was wrong with him, but Franco felt spiritas opposite Adrian's landing spot.
~ZONE PROWESS: THE ZONE!
BWONN!!
He created a protective zone around them before smoke engulfed the entire street. Franco then expanded the zone to clear their vision, and a man wearing a cowboy hat appeared walking towards them. As the smoke cleared, the man disappeared.
"What the heck just happened?" Franco muttered to himself.
Yuro came crashing onto one of the buildings right where they were. As Makoto looked in his direction, he saw that Yuro was being choked and held off the ground.
"Let's see how much endurance your nagging voice has now!"
The other man's arm turned into lava and began burning Yuro.
"AAAAAAHHH!!"
~CASOULE PROWESS: CHAINED ANVIL!!
BLAST!!!!
Yuro fell back to the ground as the man vanished.
"This is not a good sign, first Adrian and now Yuro. Where are the others then?!" Makoto asked.
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Ado ran around the city as fast as possible, eliminating seven of the ten demoniacs and fourteen more. Then he felt spiritas nearby and prepared an attack before jumping at the target.
"WAIT!!"
He quickly moved away to see who it was.
"Who the… huh…Kate? What are you doing here?"
"I'm TRYING to live!! Don't just attack someone without looking."
Ado felt bothered until he recognized the person she was with.
"SUZUKI!" He ran to him. "I was wondering what happened to you. Where is Genti?"
As he asked that question, Suzuki looked right at Kate.
"Oh, yeeaaahhh…he and I sort of got into a misunderstanding..."
Ado and Suzuki gave her a look of guilt, but AR troops suddenly surrounded them.
"Put your hands up; you are now under Anti-Ronin custody!"
"Anti…Ronin? What the hell is that?!" Kate asked as she put down Suzuki and began to charge up spiritas.
All of a sudden, all the different troops of all the four lieutenants gathered around them, and now it was a battle of three against one hundred soldiers. Ado knew that the numbers game would overpower him no matter how fast he was.
"You guys are outnumbered. No matter how much you retaliate, we will capture you."
Ado then stood in front of Suzuki and Kate.
"Guys, when I give the signal, you run as far as possible." He whispered at them.
The soldiers began marching closer, and Ado started to charge up spiritas.
~THUNDER PROWESS: THUNDER CLAP!!
The soldiers witnessed Ado prepare an attack and attack them. Ado then opened his arms wide as if wanting to hug someone and, with suppressed speed, clapped his hands together.
CLAP!!
Everything froze for a while, but he still moved at full speed.
~THUNDER PROWESS: RAIJIN
TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP, TAP!!!
Instantly, he knocked out half of the soldiers before time flew back to its casual pace.
"ALL RIGHT GET GOING!!"
Kate took Suzuki and ran away while the soldiers tried to chase them. However, Ado intercepted their path and started taking them down individually. Suddenly, he felt a dart hit his chest, similar to the ones used to tranquilize wild animals. It slowly caused Ado to become disoriented, and he began missing his targets. Eventually, he fell to the ground with the soldiers surrounding him and signaled their boss while pulling out his walkie-talkie.
"General. We have caught one of the rebels. What do we do now?"
The soldier's comrades stared at him strangely, but he had no idea why. When he finally realized he wasn't getting any response, pulling his hand away, he was holding a brick. Confused, he threw it to the ground and asked if anyone had a walkie-talkie with them. To his surprise, all fifty-nine other soldiers also had only bricks. Suddenly, a walkie-talkie came crashing down from above, causing them all to become alert. When they looked back down, Ado was gone, and a soldier was tied up in his place. A man in a mask appeared before them as they searched for Ado.
"Sir, please state yourself and stand down. This area is not the-"
And in a blink, he found himself where the masked man was a few seconds ago. The masked man set himself in between the raffle of ARs. They all aimed their guns at his head, but only one soldier opened fire.
BANG!! SPLASH!!
All the soldiers were shocked when they saw the head of their comrade burst open. And there, the masked man was holding the gun. "I don't recommend pulling the trigger. That is if you want to die."
They all stepped back, and another soldier opened fire. Then there he was, holding the dead soldier's gun and getting shot right in the head. The masked man was in his place now, and out of fear, they dropped their guns and ran instead.
"ABORT MISSION! THIS GUY IS CRAZY!"
"ARE YOU LEAVING THE BATTLEFIELD?!?!"
A voice came flying from above right before a soldier had his head split in two by bare hands. Another ronin came by with a vicious hand chop, and with just that, he went right through his body. The masked man stepped back.
"You picked such a bad time and place to come, Kuma."
"I'm awful with directions; just before I felt your spiritas, Litch."
Litch was the name of the masked man, and Kuma seemed to be the name of his friend. They both struck fear into the soldiers with their unimaginable powers.
"So, how many are we dealing with here?" Kuma asked.
"Just fifty-six if we don't count the dead ones."
"That many? Then that doesn't hype me up at all…" Kuma went quiet and smiled at Litch. "...you know what, Litch?"
He turned towards Kuma, hoping he wouldn't ask for an absurd request. "Yes?"
And suddenly, Kuma began to take his stance, BEAR. His skin began to crack right before it broke off like glass. Dark markings were all over his face, just like Tedashii. But he had his pattern and iris. "How about you fight me?"
Litch had a face of dismay, but it didn't show since he wore his mask. "Not happening. You just came here, and you are already-"
SMASH!!
Another of the soldier's faces was bashed in half by a horizontal blow by Kuma. Litch switched his position with that soldier to submit his safety.
"Guess we will only have to deal with this with our fists then?"
"That's unfair; you'll use your switch to avoid me!" Kuma pouted with annoyance.
"Do you want to fight or not?"
He said nothing and jumped up to fight Litch.
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After avoiding the female lieutenant, Genti found himself in another section of the city. He bumped into the rest of the soldiers from Headquarters but did not recognize him, so they aimed their weapons and began to get in range.
"Sir, state yourself and your reason for being here."
"DON'T WORRY; I'M WITH THE ELITE FORCE! MY NAME IS GENTI."
They all lowered their guns and listened to him.
"Listen, do you guys promise to do your job?"
"Huh, where are all of these questions coming from?"
"JUST ANSWER THE DAMN QUESTION! Because the other ten of you guys got killed because of their perverted drives. So WILL YOU do YOUR JOB as a G*d Damn OFFICER!?!?"
They didn't know how to respond to him until they began to feel the struggle to breathe. Even after wearing their masks, they thought it was getting more searing. With a flash, they were too slow to see the light that appeared right before it hit the ground.
BOOM!!!
The impact splashed lava on some of the soldiers, and others who did not get caught in the explosion suffocated by a smoke cloud surrounding the entire street. They all perished from agonizing deaths, and only Genti survived, who hid behind the bushes away from the enemies.
"Well then Kagutsuchi. Aren't these a bunch of small fries in one jar, don't you think?"
"Oh, please! That's the last thing I want from a fight, Rodgers."
The two low generals of the AR arrived on the scene. The One and Two-star Lieutenants, Melvis Rodgers(1) and Kagutsuchi Nakamura(2) came to eradicate the rest of the rebels from their territory. Genti was shivering in his spot, for even though he was far away, he could feel their presence like a hurricane.
("Who are these people, and what do they want?!")