Chapter 26 : Palm Of Katai

Duri continued, "What CULT are you talking about?"

Katai replied, "Oh don't play dumb, brat. You know THEY sent you after me. Why else would you come at the right exact time? I have to kill you here and now if I want to survive."

Duri clenched his fists, "Dude. I don't know what the hell you are talking about. You must be on some drugs or something. I'm not here to kill you. But if killing you is what you want me to do…I have no problem doing it."

Katai stood down, and smirked, "I see. Alright. You're clean. Get out of my sight."

Katai turned around to go back inside, but Duri was standing in front of him.

Duri asked, "You're talking about Harvest, aren't you?"

Katai answered, "What are you? A reporter? Move."

"You were aiming to fight me anyway, make me move."

"...I don't have time for this. No time to be brawling in a populated area."

"I don't care about that shit. You already got me ready. No one threatens me."

"You let your strength and fame get to you. Thinking you can fight anyone that comes your way or pisses you off even the slightest bit. You're not a worthy enough opponent for me, birthmark boy."

Duri instantly rammed his fist against Katai's face, Katai's body blasted back and hit a wall, breaking some of the wall into rubble.

Duri was standing there with steam coming off of his fist, and he said, "Get up. You're weak."

Behind Duri, Katai was walking back inside, saying, "You didn't even notice that that was a clone of me. And you think you're ready to fight the whole world? Better yet…Harvest?"

"You.."

"I was just like you once when I was around your age. I'm gonna take a guess and say you were a nice kid at first, then shit started happening and you became the violent 'I don't take shit from anyone' type of person."

"Well. When you grow with the love to fight, and when you have someone who wants to kill you up in your head almost everyday…yeah, that shit would change someone. Don't try and act like you know anything about me. Everyone I meet acts like they used to be like me. It's getting annoying. First Marshy, then Xenon, then-."

"You're easier to read than you know. And a lot of people do relate to you. You don't seem arrogant, you have no problem killing anyone without showing any type of sympathy, yeah sounds like me. And you mentioned Xenon? That man lost his entire wife and kids in the battle against Reborn and Harvests survivors. Before I met Ferrow, I had no one. Xenon wanted to recruit me, wanted to train me so I wouldn't end up like his dead son, who was arrogant to the point where he got civilians killed and tried to fight Reborn on his own. I was young back then. My earth age is 19 years old. But my Harvest realm age is 160. Yeah, I was one of the survivors from the Arcane attack."

[FLASHBACK]

[16 years ago]

Young Katai was inside of a lab, wearing a blue doctor's patient gown with white socks. He was strapped to a table, he could see a white light above him, and he saw two men with doctors masks and lab coats on.

They were saying:

"New specimen. Just landed here outta nowhere. Found him unconcious. It's a good thing we found him before the Hosts did. We got lucky."

"Hell yeah we got lucky. All the other kids that are here were all close calls."

"These kids will definitely make fine puppets later on down the line."

Suddenly, Katai pulled his arms up, and the straps on him broke apart easily.

The two doctors backed up panicking, exclaiming to each other:

"I thought he was sedated! Better yet, unconscious!"

"I-I don't know how! We gotta knock him out!"

Katai got up from the bed, and jumped on the ceiling, sticking to it like a spider.

'Where am I?'

The two doctors jumped at him, and Katai growled like a dog.

Katai moved fast around the room, hitting different areas and walls.

The doctors looked confused, and finally, Katai rammed through both of them, with his hands straight through their chests.

Katai said, "Get out of my way!"

Katai threw the dead doctors to the floor, and he looked upwards as he heard an alarm.

Katai jumped up high, blasting through the roof. He was now above ground, and he was in the middle of a populated area and many lively buildings.

Bystanders saw this, saying:

"Who is that boy?"

"Beats me. Did he escape the doctor's office or something?"

"He looks tired…"

Katai was standing in the middle of everyone, and he said, "Kill…Arcane…"

The people whispered to each other:

"What did he say?"

"Kinda sounded demonic."

Katai screamed, "....Kill Arcane!"

Dark orange beams blasted from his eyes and fingers, and they were destroying everything.

People were screaming and running around, helping each other to get away from the destruction. Buildings were exploding and falling apart, and cars were speeding by.

Katai kept walking in the road with smoke and steam coming from his eyes and fingers.

He kept repeating, "Kill…the Arcane…kill the…Arcane…kill the…Arcane. Kill the Arcane, kill the Arcane, kill the Arcane, kill the Arcane!!"

Katai was blasting more orange beams from his eyes and fingers, and then he saw a school bus full of crying children on it. 

Katai saw them, and said, "Kill the Arcane!"

He blasted beams over to the children's bus, until someone came along and moved the bus out of the way. It was Host Xenon.

Xenon had moved the bus out of the way, still holding and smoking a cigarette at the same time.

Katai saw Xenon, and asked, "What the hell are you doing? Get out of my way! Kill the Arcane!"

Xenon replied, "Hey dumbass. This isn't the Arcane. This is Earth."

"Earth? Who brought me here?"

"You don't have to have someone bring you here to be here. Earth's energy probably pulled your ass here."

"Kill the Arcane.."

"Hm. You must be a survivor of that damn Harvest invasion. That shit happened years ago. But you look like a rotten child."

"I am not a child! Take me to the Arcane or I'll kill everyone!"

Xenon took a puff of his cigarette, and said, "Try it."

Katai gritted his teeth, and charged at Xenon with all of his power. Orange lights and aura was surrounding Katai's body, eyes, and fingers.

Katai yelled, "Die then!"

Katai stuck his hand out towards Xenon, ready to attack.

In the blink of an eye, Xenon dashed past Katai, standing back to back with him.

Xenon was already lighting another cigarette, and Katai was falling to the ground unconscious, thinking, 'What the hell…is he?!'

Xenon had chopped the back of Katai's neck with his hand fast, that's why Katai went down so easily.

Xenon said, "Damn brat."

[FLASHBACK END]

[PRESENT DAY

Katai continued, "After that, he took me in and trained me. Got permission from the Hosts to adopt me. Then after years of training and trying to kill me through the training, my real father had arrived to take me back. And he did. That's enough talk. I'm going back inside."

Duri didn't say a word, Katai just walked back into the arena, and shut the door behind him.

Duri thought, 'That bastard was adopted just like me…trained by a Host, just like me…are we really the same?'

Minutes later inside of the arena, the seats were all full and the crowd was going wild.

"Yeahhh!!!!!"

"Epic!"

"Can't wait to see Katai and Guhu fight each other!"

"We want blood! We want blood! We want blood!"

A male and female announcer was standing in the middle of the arena, and the male said, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Gum-Gum tournament! Tonight we have a bunch of fighters, ready to take the crown and mark their territory as being the strongest in this tournament!"

The female announcer added, "Right on the mark there! The fighters will fight each other one on one, then the winners of those fights will go against each other, and it will keep boiling down to the last two remaining fighters. And the winner of that.."

Both announcers said together in an excited manner, "Will take the grand prize!"

The crowd kept cheering, and Seven, Nine, Kazuma, Ren-Ren, and Jiyu were just sitting there.

Duri was all the way near the ceiling, sitting on the ledge of a light, looking down on everything. He saw Seven and the others, but saw some old man take his spot that they had saved for him.

Duri pulled out his phone, went through his contacts, and called Seven.

'Pick up. Pick up. Pick the hell up,' He thought.

Finally, Seven picked up, answering, "You're late, asshole."

"You don't think I know that? Listen, tell that old geezer to move."

"What are you-how are you even seeing us?"

"Look up."

Seven looked up, and she saw Duri sitting on the ledge of the light bar.

Seven waved, and Duri rolled his eyes.

Seven said into the phone, "Damn, no wave back?"

Duri answered, "Not until you tell that old man to move."

"Why were you so late anyway? This is your fault."

"I know that, okay? Damn. Tell that old geezer to get up."

Seven looked to the old man beside her, and said to him, "Hey old man, you mind getting up?"

The old man responded, "Hm? Me? This was the only seat left."

"Thank you for your time, old man."

Seven got back on the phone with Duri, and said to him, "Yeah he said fuck you he's not getting up."

Duri replied, "Tell him if he doesn't move, I'm gonna…wait…I recognize him."

Duri was looking closely at the old man, and saw that it was Mifu, Marshy's grandfather. And on the other side of Mifu, was Voel, Xenon's father.

Duri said, "Mifu?!"

Seven replied, "Eeeexactly. Your own grandfather. You should be ashamed."

"Ugh. Shut up. I'll stay up here."

"Want me to come up there with you?"

Duri's face got red, and he answered, "D-Dummy! What are you talking about?"

"I mean exactly what I say."

"...It's fine, Seven. I'll be fine up here."

From above, Duri could see Seven telling Kazuma, Ren-Ren, Jiyu, and Nine that Duri was high above them.

They all looked up, gasped, and started waving at Duri with a smile on their face.

Duri shook his head, then paid attention to the announcers.

The male announcer in the middle of the ring said, "Now, here are the rules. Yeah yeah, I know repeating them is a drag, but we always have to do it just in case for new and future fighters!"

The female announcer added, "None of the fighters are allowed to kill their opponents intentionally. The crowd or any other fights are not allowed to interfere in someone's match. There is an invisible dome around the area, so the audience will be safe from powers, and it keeps people from getting in or out. The win is counted if the opponent gives up, is unable to move, or is knocked out..or dead. But that varies on the intentional or unintentional kill. If you are late to enter your match in a 5 minute grace period from when your match was supposed to start, you automatically forfeit. That's all the rules! Good luck to all the fighters! Woo hoo!"

The crowd ravaged on with their cheers, yelling all sorts of things.

Standing in bird's eye view of the arena, up high in a bright white room with fancy couches and TV's, was Xenon. 

Xenon was looking out of the window, looking down at the arena. Behind Xenon, was a couple of lesser known Hosts not a part of the strongest seven.

The Hosts said:

"I'm so honored to have Xenon watch over a tournament with us!"

"I know right! He's such a legend!"

"Go up and talk to him! Go!"

"No, I'm scared."

"Heh, I'll go! I'm not scared of anything."

The Host walked up to Xenon, and said, "X-Xenon, sir?"

Xenon didn't look at him, but he answered, "What?"

"Y-you aren't supposed to smoke in here.."

The other Hosts whispered to the Host, "You idiot! Why would you say that?!"

Xenon turned around, "Eh?"

"Ah shit."

Xenon grabbed the middle of the Host's head, and started squeezing it hard, but didn't squeeze down too hard.

Xenon said to him, "You're not even a part of the seven. Who are you to give me orders?"

Xenon blew smoke in the Host's face, continuing, "I do what I want, when I want, and however I want. You all are my underlings. I'm the dad, you all are the children. Next time one of you tries to tell me what to do, I'll pop your head open like a balloon. Got it?"

The Hosts nodded fast, "Y-Yes sir!"

Xenon grinned, "Good."

He let go of the Host he was holding, and started to turn around to look back down at the arena.

He thought, 'Katai will be competing tonight..'

Walking up beside Xenon, was Host Chaos. 

Chaos said, "Damn, Xenon. You're kinda kinda mean ya know?"

"So?"

"Haha, good one, good one."

"You came up to me for a reason. What do you want?"

"Just…checkin up."

"Worried because Katai is competing tonight?"

"Mhm, yes."

"You're bad at hiding shit, Chaos. I'm fine though. It's crazy how things ended up this way. With me training Katai for years, adopting him, just for his real father to show up and take him away from me."

"Annnd you tried to kill the man."

"So?"

"Attempted murder, DUHHHHH."

"Don't care. I wanna see how Katai does. I haven't seen Katai fight since he left."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Behind Xenon and Chaos, was Host Kedarah, at a table eating all the sweets that were there. Stuffing them in her mouth.

Xenon asked Chaos, "You brought Kedarah?"

Chaos answered, "Trust me, trust me…it's NOT like that. She's following me because she's bored."

Xenon asked Kedarah, "Kedarah, don't you have a tournament to Host?"

Kedarah swallowed some more food, and replied, "Hm? No! Hehe, I'm following Chaos everywhere because I'm bored!"

"Figures."

Chaos said, "Well, your tournament is starting, I'll be on my way. Take care of yourself, bro."

"I'll try. Keep an eye out too while you're gone."

"Yokai."

A couple of minutes later, fighters were knocking each other around with their powers, hands, legs, and using all other types of moves to win. 

The crowd was going crazy, colors were blasting everywhere, and the announcers were yelling into the microphones:

"WHAT A MOVE BY LINYU!"

"UH OH! SHE'S GOING UP!"

"LOOK AT THAT POWER!"

"...AND HERE IS YOUR WINNER…LINYU!"

The crowd went crazy again, and Duri was still up high, watching and observing the fights closely.

Kazuma and Ren-Ren were getting excited, exclaiming, "OHHHH! AWESOME!!!".

Seven and Nine were fairly entertained, but they didn't show it.

Jiyu was too focused on people looking at her, so she was constantly having a red face and acting nervous.

The announcers yelled, "NEXT UP, KATAI VS GOTOHIME!"

Duri sat up when he heard Katai's name. He never saw Katai fight, so this was going to be interesting to him.

Katai was standing on the arena platform, and he had a straight face, thinking, 'Guess this shit is for you…Ferrow.'

His opponent laughed, "Haha! I'll squish you like a bug! You think you're a big shot! Let's see what you're made of!"

Katai said, "Come at me."

His opponent got down on all fours, and rhino horns were coming out of his back, and they had a grey and green aura around them. He then had a rhino horn come out of his forehead, and he started to grow to at least 7 feet tall.

He started pounding over to Katai, while the crowd was going wild, Duri and Xenon fully invested into watching it, and the floor rumbling.

The announcers yelled:

"Gotohime is going for his famous killer move this early! What will the prodigy Katai do here?! What will he do against it?!"

Katai's opponent was getting closer, with the horn almost touching him.

Katai grabbed the enemy's horn, making Gotohime stop in his tracks, shocking the crowd.

Gotohime said, "Impossible! No one can stop this move! It's beaten hundreds of people!"

Katai replied, "I'm not them."

Katai jumped up high while still holding Gotohime by the horn, and then he let him go.

From multiple directions, Katai was punching and kicking and dashing across Gotohime in multiple areas. Blood bursted out of Gotohime's face, and Katai kept going.

After a few seconds of a brutal beating, Katai appeared above Gotohime, and Katai's hand was glowing orange and gold with the same color aura.

Katai said, "I win."

Katai smacked the middle of Gotohime's chest, and he put a dent in it. Gotohime crashed back down to the arena, hitting the floor hard and making everything rumble. 

He was unconscious. Almost dead. The crowd was going insane, and people from around the world watching the fight virtually waz going crazy and cheering too, and the announcers were yelling:

"What a blow from Katai!"

"It was expected if you ask me!"

"Katai is the winner of this fight and will move onto the next one!"

Katai was floating in the air, and his orange aura was still surrounding him and his hand.

Katai turned around, and he saw Xenon looking right at him. They both were looking at each other.

Katai then turned his head to the right, and he saw Duri.

Him and Duri looked at each other, and Xenon saw Duri and Katai giving each other malicious faces.