Two Paths

The whims of fate are oftentimes unpredictable.

A person can only have so much happen to them in their lifetime.

That is what I, Kamishiro Senzai had always believed.

"Oi Senzai, get your ass over here!"

In the depths of a rain forest out in the wilds of Southern India.

"Cover me. I'm going to go around and kill as many of them as I can."

A hail of bullets was raining down on a team of uniformed men.

All they could do was hide behind the thick trunks of the aged tropical trees and run to another one after the tree was filled with bullet holes. It was a dreadful sight.

"Have you lost it already!? Those people have something that could detect even our trained special operatives when we were in camouflage! It's suicide to think you can sneak up on them, idiot!"

A dark-skinned Asian man shouted towards the well-built soldier who was about to leave.

Even so, the latter did not stop moving, and quickly disappeared into the forest behind them.

"Ah dammit, that guy never listens!"

Exasperated by his comrade, the man could only scream out his woes, and continued shooting at the enemies. As their bullets continue to fire, their magazines were quickly emptied.

"Shit, commander were almost out of ammo!"

A bearded man with one eye screamed his heart out amidst the sounds of death and shooting.

"I know that, just take down as many as you can until we find an opening!"

The dark-skinned man, who was the commander replied and immediately went back to taking aim.

But his mind was filled with fear and dread all the while. How could he have expected that the damned terrorists hiding out in the forests would have technology this advanced?

The moment they stepped into a 100 meter radius, it seemed that they already found their location.

Obviously, they might have stolen a highly-advanced tracking defense mechanism.

From then on, they had encountered traps and ambushes for three days straight. Many brothers of his had died without even knowing what killed them, whether they be bombs, blade grenades, and even poisonous gas released throughout the night attacks.

Even now, when they had almost no sleep at all, drained of their energy, the enemies did not stop their endeavors. The advantage was completely in their hands.

"We've almost eliminated them boss, just give us the order to move in and finish the job."

Over on the terrorist's makeshift base, one of the men with scars on his face held up a communication device, and relayed his status to his boss.

"...Bzzzt..."

But strangely, no answer could be heard.

"Boss, are you there? We need to move now."

"...zz..."

"Shit something must've happened at the tent. You, go back and check what happened to boss!"

The scar-faced man quickly found someone standing behind him without a gun. He ordered him briefly before turning back to reload his rifle.

"Of course sir."

"!?"

But as soon as he heard the man's reply, he felt the sense of impending death creep up behind him.

In all his years as a criminal terrorist, no comrade of his had called him sir. He always made sure to tell all new recruits to call him Chief or Scar. So he quickly tried to turn around.

"Oops, too late."

Unfortunately, instead of turning his head, his neck quickly span a full revolution of 360 degrees.

Soon enough, the scar-faced man's eyes went dull and his breathing ceased, effectively ending his life. The large hands placed on his temples that were used to kill him, were then released after making sure that the target was dead.

"Ah, that's the last of them."

After finishing his job, the man without a gun released a sigh as his lips curled into a smirk.

This man had maneuvered all the way through the dense rain forest, and had sneaked into the enemy base completely undetected. As to why he didn't get caught, no one knew the reason.

Using only his bare hands, the man's martial arts and brilliant timing of combat strategy had completely decimated the terrorist leader and his group in a matter of minutes.

He quickly found a large white cloth and tied it to a branch he broke off from a nearby tree.

As his eyes filled with arrogance was scanning throughout the area filled with blood and corpses of his enemies, he chuckled once more and began to raise the cloth with the branch to function as a makeshift flag.

As soon as the soldiers saw the white flag, they were instantly filled with relief.

The dark-skinned commander quickly signaled to the others to hold their fire. Although they didn't have that much ammo left either so it almost didn't matter.

"They surrendered? Why?"

As the commander was increasing his caution, he saw the man holding the white flag walking out of the enemy base as if he was taking a stroll through a park. When his eyes saw the face of the man, his expression interchanged between happiness, relief, anger, and helplessness.

"Turns out its the ace's work, as expected of him."

A man who had lost an arm nodded his head as he voiced out his appreciation.

"Kuu, dammit! If only I thought of going through their backs, I could have killed them all even faster. Hmph, I won't lose next time, Senzai you bastard!"

A hotheaded young man with long red hair, felt as if the world was unfair and stomped his feet as he pointed towards the man walking towards them with envy and anger.

"Touya, when will you learn that you will never catch up to me?"

When he heard these words, the man named Senzai quickly retorted with his nose held up high, disdain and a hint of playfulness was present in his gaze.

"Ahhh, you're infuriating as always! That's it, I challenge you to another match!"

Turning bright red out of anger and embarrassment, the young red-haired man called Touya rushed up to Senzai as if he wanted to punch his arrogant face in.

"Alright. That's enough you two. Touya, you can deal with him later after we finish the job and get some rest. As for you, you blockhead! How can you rush in like that?! You directly disobeyed a military order! I should have you arrested and court-martialled after this is all over!"

The commander quickly stopped Touya by placing himself in between the two, and began lecturing both of them with an irritated face. But the two seemingly didn't hear them as they were only looking towards one another.

"What, so you want to kiss the ground again? I won't stop you but this time, at least make it interesting. I don't want to have to get scolded again for sending you to the infirmary."

"This. Time. I. Won't. Lose. I'm gonna beat that grin right off your face!"

"Hmph, you wish."

"Ah, what did you say!?"

One was tall and his eyes were as prideful as kings, and the other was shorter with a gaze as sharp as a sword that was ready to be unsheathed.

"Honestly, these two..."

The commander, Takezawa Shuichiro, shook his head in helplessness as his lips curled into a gentle smile. As he placed his hands on each of the two's shoulders, his eyes radiated a rare warmth.

These two disciples of his were troublesome, but they had the potential to become great people.

Kamishiro Senzai, a powerful but arrogant strategist with total control of his emotions.

Yamamoto Touya, a short-tempered youth with unparalleled combat techniques.

With a little polishing, together they can both bring about great change to this forsaken world filled with corruption, poverty, and the millions of innocent deaths due to war.

Because only with unquestionable strength and sound wisdom can one make a difference.

"Now, let's all finish this and go home!"

The commander shouted out as the cheers of the soldiers behind him followed.

Little did he know that the two geniuses he had high hopes for, would completely be embroiled in a great life-changing battle in the near future.

A battlefield that made the two brightest stars, take completely different paths.

Was about to begin.