Best friends forever

Kage and Unknown arrive at Grava Forest and stand at the front gate, preparing to walk in, but see a suspicious sign that says stay out.

"Unknown look at this sign that says "stay out."

"Come on, Kage look at the sign; it doesn't even have any type of official symbol to signal that it's official. Grava Forest is an open place for anyone to go in, so someone like the police would put up a sign to keep people out. "

"Yeah, you're right, some dumb kid probably put this up as a prank."

"Yep, so in that case, let's go."

"Wait, before we go, did you do the research for what we need to look for?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what we're looking for."

Unknown pulls out a small notebook and shows a sketch of a small white flower.

"Ok, Kage, this right here is called the Deande flower, which is a special flower that is said to increase life expectancy."

"Oh, I see where your heads at! If you live longer, you have more time to reach level three."

"Right, it's the perfect physical object to present to Mr. Mink."

"Ok, that's that. It's time to head in."

Kage and Unknown head into Grava Forest to look for the Deande flower, but they don't realize the impending danger they just put themselves in by taking a step into the forest.

Deep into Grava Forest, a group of suspicious men have set up camp and seem to be led by a creepy, pale, scrawny man with long black hair dressed in white and wearing a red cloak with four curved blades on his waist. The creepy man who is sitting on a rock gets up and starts to brief his men.

"Now men! Listen up, our operation here in the Grava Zone is almost done, and after it is, she will finally allow me into her more serious operations. Now men, don't fuck this up because my promotion is riding on this."

The creepy man walks into a tent and sees a cage full of scared and beat-up children from the ages of six to ten.

"Hello, children, how are you holding up in this cage? Don't worry, you will soon reach the boss, and your potential will be used in the way it should be," he says in a creepy tone and a chuckle.

As the creepy man starts to laugh, one of the children reaches through the cage, grabs the creepy man's cloak, and says in a weak voice,

"Please, sir, I'm so hungry, and I miss my mommy. Can you please let me see my mommy?"

The child starts to cry without any sign of stopping, and at the same time, the veins in the creepy man's head start to pop out of his head.

"Get your dirty fucking hands off of me, you snot-nose brat!"

The creepy man takes out a curved blade and slices the child's hand off.

"Ahh!"

As the child screams in pain, the creepy man becomes even more angry.

"Would you shut the fuck up? This is why I hate children."

The creepy man takes his curved blade and stabs the crying child in the face while twisting it at the same time. The creepy man pulls his blade out of the child's face and gets blood all over the other scared children in the background. All the children in the cage start to cry and scream for their parents. As the children cry, the creepy man looks at them with a crazed expression.

"Fine, the boss doesn't need all of you, so I'll do him a favor and cut this group in half!"

Before the creepy man could make a move on the rest of the children, one of his men ran into the tent to report something.

"Nest this is terrible!"

"What the hell do you want? Don't you see that I am busy dealing with these brats?"

"Sorry to disturb you, but we have a problem."

"What could possibly be the problem?"

"Two kids who look like they go to Grava Academy have entered Grava Forest."

"What! Didn't they see the sign?"

"They seem to have seen past our ruse, sir."

"Well, why the hell are you here? Go get them and kill them; we can't have any problems, especially right now."

"yes sir!"

The underling leaves the room, and then Nest looks back at the children with a smile. Nest walks to the cage and opens it with his blade in hand.

"Now to get back to what I was doing," he says menacingly.

At the same time, on the other side of the forest, Kage and Unknown are looking everywhere for the Deande flower but can't seem to find it.

"We've been looking for hours; where is this thing?"

"Kage, you're overexaggerating; we've only been here for 25 minutes."

"I know, but that's what it feels like. Where the hell is this flower?"

"The Deande flower is very rare; we could be here for a long time."

"Of course, it just has to be rare."

As Kage speaks, he notices, in the corner of his eye, a familiar crater.

"Aye Unknown look over there; it's that crater!"

"Oh yeah, it's the crater where we first met."

"Yeah, the day we became best friends happened right here at this crater."

"You know it's really funny because if you never found me that day, I don't think I would be alive today."

Kage and Unknown start to reminisce about how they became best friends right here at this same location.

About two years ago, a fourteen-year-old kage was practicing for the Grava Academy entrance exam in Grava Forest.

"Ok, one more time."

Kage glows, signaling the activation of level one, and as OGI flows through his body, he grits his teeth. His muscles start to bulge, and the glow coming from his body starts to slowly intensify.

"Come on level two! Come on level two! I have to hit level two and be able to keep using it before the entrance exam, or making it in might be impossible."

Kage powers down and is left exhausted after pushing his limits.

"Damn, I really can't do it again, can I?"

As Kage slowly gets up, he hears a loud crash in the distance.

"What the hell was that?"

Kage rushes to where he heard the crash, and while Kage is running to the crater, he looks up and sees something disappear in the sky.

"What the hell was that? It looked like a hole in the sky."

Kage stops and sees a crater with a badly beaten fourteen-year-old Unknown lying knocked out at the bottom of it. Kage rushes down to the bottom of the crater with a worried expression.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Kage touches Unknown looks back at his hand and sees blood.

"Oh shit! He's bleeding badly; I need to get him to the hospital."

Kage throws Unknown on his back and sprints to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, Kage tries to talk to Unknown, who is still unconscious.

"Hey dude, I know you can't hear me right now, but I will get you to that hospital. You will survive, so just hold on."

As Kage runs to the hospital, a thunderstorm starts, which causes it to rain so intensely that it becomes hard to run.

"What the hell? There wasn't any sign of a thunderstorm earlier. Don't worry, mystery person on my back, I will get you to that hospital."

With sheer determination, Kage makes it to the hospital, even with the thunderstorm making it a struggle. Kage takes the injured Unkown to the emergency room and talks to the doctor.

"Hey, doctor, this kid here is in really bad shape. Do you think you can help him?"

"Of course, put him on the stretcher, and we will deal with him!"

After Kage put Unknown on the stretcher, he sat in the waiting room the rest of the day and then slept in the waiting room the entire night until the doctor walked in to give him an update.

"Good morning to you Kage. The boy you brought us has fully recovered and has woken up, but he seems to have no memory of who he is or where he came from."

"There's no way you've got to be joking."

"I'm afraid not, but Kage I know this might be much to ask of you, but if you wouldn't mind, could you take him home and take care of him for now?"

"Well, it's ok if it will help."

Kage takes Unknown home with him and talks to him about who he is.

"So you seriously have no memory of who you are or where you came from?"

The confused Unknown stays silent to Kage's question.

"Hey, I'm talking to you after saving your life. Can't you at least answer my question?"

"I'm sorry, it's just..."

Unknown grabs his head in extreme confusion and anguish.

"Who the hell am I? I know that I was someone before, but everything is so foggy."

Unknown starts to pull his white hair and cry. Kage, seeing Unknown in such a state, sits down next to him and puts his hand on his back.

"Hey listen I know it can be hard to not know who you are or where you came from, but you still have to keep calm. The world is a weird place, and everything might be weird for you, especially right now, but I will help you find out who you are, I promise."

"Do you mean it?"

"Of course, I'm a man of my word!"

"Thank you, Kage, but why are you helping me?"

"Oh, um, it's just that I know how it feels to be completely vulnerable, weak, and feeling like your birth was a mistake and you're being tortured because of it, but someone taught me that no matter how bad it gets, you should never question the worth of your life."

"I know we haven't known each other long, but I can tell you're a good person, so I'll trust you."

"Perfect now to find you a name."

"I already thought of a name; just call me Unknown."

"What? "

"The doctors called me unknown when they were talking about me. I'm guessing it's because they don't know my name, but I feel Unknown matches who I am currently, so I will use this name proudly."

"Sounds good to me, but let's get you some clothes."

"Okay, but if we're going to do that, can I get a mask to wear?"

"Why?"

"I don't know why it's the same as my name; it feels like it just matches me."

Kage starts to laugh after hearing what Unknown says.

"You know you're pretty funny. I'm glad you're here. So the doctors told me, you're a level one OGI user; do you think you can help me master my level two?"

"Well, Kage, since you saved me, it would be rude for me not to help."

Kage and Unknown from that point on became not only best friends but also extreme rivals, and to this day they always have each other's back.

Kage's and Unknown's minds drift back to the present.

"Wow, Unknown, we have grown a lot together."

"Yeah, you're right. I can't believe all of that happened two years ago."

"Well, as my best friend and rival, let's complete this damn assignment and continue with finding level three together."

"right!"

Kage and Unknown fist bump each other energetically, but as they do, they suddenly get surrounded by many suspicious men who all have level one activated. Kage looks around while getting into a fighting stance.

"Oh shit! We're surrounded. Who the hell are these guys?"

Chapter 5 end