Beginnings and Ends (16)

Kodak looks at the man in shock and thinks back to what Kuroi said about Fukushū. "You're just like Kenji."

Kenji looks at Kodak's feet placement and even the way his revenant. "(This guy's martial capabilities are about equal to mine, a real monster I wonder how strong he'll be when fully realized. However, I have better control over revenant and he's barely an B-rank. So I have the advantage!)"

Kenji rushes forward, his revenant surges through the area. His blade swings down on Kodak, instantly slashing through his entire body. Blood splatters over the ground. Kenji's face of love for battles was then shut down, as he looked at Kodak's body. It was barely holding on, given the wounds he had just from one attack.

Kodak's mind rushes as the feeling of death etches closer to him. He begins to wonder if this was how he'd die, but he refused. He stands up, knees shaking and blood dripping down his toro. He looks down and sees some random clothing, he picks it up and ties it around his body. Blood soaks the white cloth that was tightly squeezing his torso.

"I refuse to die against you Kenji, cause unlike you I have people I need to live for!!!" Kodak's revenant soars and his wounds begin to heal. Kenji smirks and lifts his blade up, his face was filled with an immense joy for this brief battle. "I must commend you for that strong will of yours. It's even greater than mine. But determination and love won't get you through everything!"

He then points his blade at Kodak and chants a singular word. "Strike." The blade is suddenly charged with dark streaks of lightning. The energy shoots forward in triangular motion, the speed of the blast was incredible. But Kodak felt something beating within himself, it was something calling to him. "Fight, dodge, WIN."

Kodak speeds immediately around the blast and rushes straight at Kenji, his energy soars through the area. His kinetic energy felt even greater as well, almost more destructive. The energy burst forward towards Kenji, but before it could strike it explodes with sparks of black energy. Kenji tries to dodge but Kodak was way too close to even do so. He slashes his blade upwards, countering the short burst of kinetic energy Kodak had unleashed towards him.

"Damn kiddo, I didn't think you could hit me with a death burst." Kenji looks at his arm and notices a bruise on the arm Kodak had aimed for. He rushes at Kenji, but he puts his hand up. "Listen I would love to teach you more kiddo, but I'm short on time. So tell Kuroi and Kiko I said hello."

Kodak then looks at himself and Kenji. They begin to fade away as the village just looks at them peacefully. Kenji put his hand on Kodak's shoulder and smiles. "Become strong Kodak, stronger than me. I just hope you can stop the danger coming soon." He begins to walk away as he fades even further away.

Kodak looks at him angry, confused. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN KENJI!!! HOW DO I STOP IT!!"

Kenji looks back and a serious face plasters over his face and attitude. "You have to kill Satsujin."

Kodak then walks up in his bed. "NO!" His face is covered with cold sweat as he springs up awake and confused. He then looks to his left and sees Kuroi, along with Kiko sleeping peacefully.

"(I wonder if they'll believe if I told them about the one sided beatdown that Kenji gave me.)"

Kodak smirks of the idea that he met Kenji before Kuroi could see him again. "I guess he'd be jealous."

He snickers at the thought but that brief happiness disappeared, as Kodak remembered what Kenji told him. "Kill Satsujin."

Kodak scoffed at the idea of it and disregarded Kenji's words. "(Maybe it's selfish of me, but I refuse to kill someone I cherish. Even if it causes the end of the world, after all Jin-San was the reason I have a home and even a new family.)"

He looks out the window and then at his phone's alarm going off. "I slept through the whole day yesterday. I need to fix my rough sleep schedule. But I also gotta teach Ashiro and Fumiko about revenant. Especially Ashiro, he's roughly a C-rank but he still can't control anything."

Kodak grabs his school uniform and enters his bathroom, starting his normal routine. Skincare, styling, and hygiene. He exits the bathroom, fully refreshed from the shower. "Hey Kiko, Kuroi wake up. It's 7 in the morning wake up guys!"

Kiko's eyelashes flutter like a butterfly before opening her eyes finally. "Hm? Oh, good morning Kodak." Her hair was the usual messy bed head she had in the morning. Kodak walks over, beginning to brush her long and luscious hair. "You need to take better care of your beautiful hair Kiko-San."

She smiles at Kodak and begins her early morning teasing. "Aw, look at you caring for me Kodak~"

His face looks at her blankly before briefly leaving his bedroom. Kiko looked at him in shock. "You're just gonna leave a beautiful girl like myself to fend for herself?" She said in a sarcastic tone.

Kodak ignores her and turns his attention towards Kuroi. "Just make sure you guys freshen up and stay out of sight from the Tensai family."

Kuroi yawns in response. "Yeah, yeah whatever you say Kodak." 

Ashiro wakes up, smelling a delicious breakfast awaiting in the kitchen. He springs awake, wanting to get breakfast early. "(FOOD!!!)"

He jogs out of his room, expecting to see his father cooking breakfast with his mother peacefully watching.

But to his surprise he sees that instead of his father, it was Kodak cooking a meal. He turns around from the stove, looking at Ashiro. "Oh, good morning bro. I thought this time I should cook, since I took your food yesterday. Sorry bout that."

Ashiro looks at the table filled with Tamagoyaki, steamed rice, miso soup, and even cooked salmon. His mouth begins to water at the site of the large portions of food set at the table. Kodak steps in front of the food. "Chill out bro, wait till the others wake up."

The sound of a door opening echoes through the house as the boys watch Satsujin pushing Aiya in a wheelchair, as Atsuo swiftly follows his parents to the kitchen.

The others look at the large portions of food. "You cooked this Kodak?" Satsujin asks him while he stares at the delicious food before him.

Aiya smiles towards Kodak, placing her hands on her wheels. As she rolls over to Kodak he smiles and greets her softly. "Good morning Aiya-San."

She smiles in response and replies to his greeting. "Oh honey, please just call me Mom."

Kodak's expression changes from clam and collected to an embarrassed look towards Aiya. "I'm able to call you that?"

She smiles once more and nods, her attitude was sweet just like a mother was. Kodak smiles happily and exhales. "Okay then, mom."

Aiya looks at him a little bit surprised, but chuckles to herself. She looks back at Satsujin and smirks an overly confident grin. "I won the bet darling~"

Satsujin sighs a breath of annoyance and reaches into his pocket, pulling out 700 yen. He then pulls his sleeve back, looking at his watch. "I gotta go honey." He bends over and kisses Aiya on the forehead. As he walks away he points towards her, talking to Kodak. "Don't trust her, she's the devil disguised as an angel Kodak."

He chuckles at Satsujin's joke as Aiya responds to his joke, sticking out her tongue at him. "Bleh!"

Kodak and Ashiro start laughing at the two parents arguing. Satsujin smirks at his family laughing and joking around. "I do have to get going, so see you guys later. 

Satsujin begins walking to bedroom, his eye then starts glitching. Panic ensues as he rushes into his bathroom, slamming the door and locking it. 

He then looks in mirror and sees Jashi right behind him. He calls out to Satsujin, his voice was still unsettling and creepy. His mere presence sent chills through the bathroom. "Well, we meet again Satsujin. I want to know your answer for the deal that I made."

Satsujin thinks back to interaction that he and Jashi had with each other. "(Of course he still wants to.)"

"My answer is no, not a fucking million years." Satsujin was stern and unwilling to give into Jashi's offer. This deeply upset him and the room became tense almost instantly.

"You dare to deny my divine offer!" His voice was nowhere near loud enough for Kodak to hear, but his intensity was still so violent and destructive.

Satsujin's face turn pale, nervous sweat began to drip down from his face an onto the tile of the bathroom. "I-I-I still refuse. I can tell just from your posture and even your body language. You want something, something I have. What is it!"

Jashi smirks at Satsujin's impressive perception and claps his hands together. "You are a very, very impressive. I dare say child, you might be the spitting image of my star pupil. All though you are a coward, vastly different from the Kurai I knew back from the Heian period."

Satsujin looked at him with even more confusion from before. But before he could even say anything else to Jashi, he spoke once more. "Tell ya what, I'll strike you a pact."

Confusion strikes Satsujin once more. "A pact? You're making another shitty deal with me?"

Jashi rolled his eyes sarcastically at Satsujin. "Wait a minute you don't know about revenant do you!?"

Jashi turns away while Satsujin tries to get his attention. "What the hell is revenant?! And you trying to trick me again?!"

He ignores Satsujin's pointless questions and thinks deeply to himself. "(I thought he had the memories of Kurai Aku, since he's a reincarnation of him.)"

Jashi looks at Satsujin, his posture and even the very presence reminded him of his star pupil. "(He's just like him. Smart, strong, kind, and even has the same technique as him. I could rebuild the relationship I never had.)"

His eyes begin filling with tears. "(Am I crying!?)"

The words of Kurai Aku then hits Jashi hard. A certain memory floods his mind. 

He holds a teenager in his arms, the smell of blood fills the air. With the sounds of people crying out for help in a burning building.

Jashi held Kurai Aku in his arms. "No, this can't be happening! SOMEONE, ANYONE! HELP ME!!!"

The boy's blood drenched arm slowly reaches Jashi, touching his face. His breath was short and his throat was filled with blood. He tried to say something but nothing comes out, except blood. He coughs it up and on to Jashi's face, covering it completely. His eyes looked at his teacher and his voice spoke into his teacher's mind. "(Don't do anything for me, please. Just let go and move on.)"

A smile appears on Kurai's face with blood dripping down onto the crimson stained ground. His eyes go blank and he feels his heart stop beating as his life flashes before his final moments.

"He's.....gone." Jashi muttered from his trembling lips, tears swiftly followed and he fell to his knees. Holding the limp and cold body of his pupil. His eyes then glitch as he feels the power from revenant coursing through his entire body. 

He then hears a voice behind him. "I found the last victim. I wonder if he breaks like the one he's holding!"

Rage fills Jashi's mind as the man rushes at him. He looked at the man and thought to himself. "(Is that their leader? Either way I couldn't care less of who dies.)"

A powerful energy surges through Jashi as his eyes begin to glitch even more. The power he felt was addictive and a sense of overwhelming confidence filled his mind.

The leader rushed at him with a grin of evil projected at Jashi. "COME ON MEN LETS KILL THIS WRINKLY BASTARD!!!"

The men behind their leader ran up with him. A group no less than 500 men run at Jashi.

He puts his hand forward and his vision becomes like a computer, seeing everything as code in a system. 

A message then pops up, [Skill: Glitching Code activated strongly.]

Spikes of steel pierce through the ground, catching the men off guard. "What the hell!"

The spikes stab right through the men as they cry out for help. The leader looks in horror at his army of 500 men, had been decimated in seconds.

He yelled at Jashi while rushing with a sword in hand. "DON'T GET COCKY YOU SENILE BASTARD!!! I HAPPEN TO BE AN A-RANK!"

Blood continues spraying through the air of the dead soldiers, as Jashi stands up still holding the limp body of his pupil. He opened his mouth to speak. "You're fucking dead."

[Skill: Glitching Code activated strongly.]

As Jashi's hand lifted up it began to light up with electricity. The leader before him didn't care though and continued to charge like the reckless fool he was.

The electricity charged even more as the leader etched closer. Jashi then chanted a singular word. "Lightning."

A bolt of lightning shot out from Jashi's hand at the leader. His eyes widened in horror as the bolt pierced right through his right arm, watching as it fell to the ground from his shoulder.

He cried out in pain. "FUUUUCCCCKKK!!!" He stopped running and dropped his sword, hold his shoulder in agony.

"I'll fucking kill you!" He then watches as Jashi walks slowly over to him. His breathing became heavy and his heart began to beat faster out of fear. "(I'm an A-Rank, so why is he beating me with no difficulty whatsoever!)"

Jashi finally reached him and placed his hand on leader's head. "Go to hell."

[Skill: Glitching Code activated strongly.]

The leader's entire body start to feel a great deal of pain. It was like some inside himself was being slowly twisted and pulled to painful extents. His breathing became short as he fell to ground, slowly suffocating. Until he died, blood spilled from his mouth and Jashi just stared at the lifeless body of who he had killed.

Jashi then began to hear a voice. "Hey, are you there dumbass!"

He snaps back to present as he looks at Satsujin, trying to get his attention. "I'm here you idiot. Just go down to your basement when you're done with your shitty job."

[Tōzai Gakuen 11:30 AM]

Kodak looks from the rooftop of the school, the warm summer winds blow through his medium length hair. He then looked down at his right hand, the diamond-shaped symbol was fading. "What the?"

Kiko looks at his hand and a looks of surprise plasters over her face. "(The symbol?! It's fading, how did this happen?)"

Kiko continues to look at the symbol fading. "Kuroi, can you stop it from fading? I need to preserve his growth until he awakens the rest of his revenant."

Kuroi looks at the symbol, scanning it with revenant. He looks back at Kiko with a smile of confidence. "Kiko-San he's ready it's just we have one problem."

She looks at Kuroi confused. Her tone was needy and impatient. "Just tell me already!" He looked at Kiko impatient whining and just laughed at her. "Hahaha!"

Kiko looked him and pouted her face. "Stop laughing you big jerk!"

Kuroi wipes away the tears of laughter from his face, trying to apologize to Kiko. "Sorry."

He cleared his throat and began his explanation on why the symbol was changing. 

"The reason for the symbol you left on him began to change, Is because he is changing not only physically with revenant but somewhat spiritually as well. He's not only fighting with it but constantly training with it as of lately. This has led the seal to grow weaker and as he gains more control over his revenant, He will unlock his true capabilities soon. Thus is growth, power, and manipulation over revenant will reach completely new heights. And will shatter any limits he had in the first place, if we try to limit him anymore. His power will drop and his innate technique will cease to exist as we know it."