Ashiro jumps back, holding Akari in his arms. He looks down at her, seeing her eyes barely open. "Good, you're awake. Heads up!" Akari then springs out of Ashiro's arms, looking at the opponent in front of them. "Masaki!?"
A girl with white hair and dressed in casual wear looked at Akari, confused. "Oh, hey Ashiro!" She waved at him cheerfully. But she didn't get the same response of kindness. "BACK OFF."
Masaki pouted at Ashiro's response. "Aw, you're no fun!" Ashiro's jaw flexed with anger as a vein popped out. "FUN?! THIS ISN'T A GAME!" He struck the ground with his fist, tearing through the asphalt as pillars of flames ripped through, aimed at Masaki.
[1st Flame Formation: Fiery Fury!]
Masaki smiled wildly at the attack, extending her hand as a red energy fired from it. "You have revenant?! This is gonna be so much fun!"
[Skill: Pulsing Spirit Wave Activated!]
Ashiro didn't reply, staying calm, collected, and focused on his opponent. "Go fuck yourself." He then charged his flames and began condensing the power into his palm. "Flare."
Masaki looked at him confused, wondering what he was doing. "Huh, say that again, I can't hear you!" The clash of the red energy from Masaki and Ashiro's flames equaled out. Kenzo watched from the sidelines, but he then felt a slight sense of fear.
Masaki rushed around the flames, summoning two daggers into her hands. She then locked onto Ashiro, trying to slash him with the blades. But he suddenly disappeared and then reappeared, holding the same flames he had condensed. "Incinerate."
"(By changing my power and style of fighting mid-battle, I can use multiple incantations. But it comes at the cost of using more revenant, and to be honest I don't give a shit!)
Ashiro puts his hand up, unleashing a devastating blast of flames, point-blank at Masaki's face.
[Skill: Firestorm Activated Strongly!]
Masaki felt her flesh melting off from the attack, her body screamed in pain as she tried enduring the blast of flames, but she knew it was pointless. Masaki was going to die. "(Looks like I'm dead.)"
"ASHIRO STOP!" Kenzo screamed before restraining Ashiro immediately. He kicked his leg and pinned him to the ground. "You will cease this foolish behavior. This is one of the S-Ranks I was about to tell you about. So will you both stop acting like children!"
[Skill: Aura of the Wise Activated!]
Ashiro and Masaki immediately fall to the ground, their faces hitting the asphalt as they feel the power behind Kenzo's aura. Ashiro thought back to what level of power this reminded him of. "(So this is the power of a fully realized Kawanari, it's terrifyingly powerful and the malicious intent behind his revenant is making my head go insane. At any moment I feel like I'm going to die!)"
Masaki and Ashiro then deactivated their techniques, and Kenzo felt the deactivation of their techniques. "Good." The intense aura ceases as Ashiro and Masaki begin to rise. "Now that we've calmed down, why did you knock Akari out of the building?" His simple question seemed easy to answer, and yet Masaki felt her sins crawling along her spine. "I-I-I just wanted to fight someone... sir." She didn't know why her words could barely even come out, but what truly bugged Masaki was the feeling of something ominous crawling along her, like her sins of the past. "(What the hell is this old man's technique!?)"
Ashiro then looked at Kenzo, feeling nothing but a warm sensation around himself, with the slight feeling of uneasiness at the same time. "(His technique is strange, I can't get a grasp of how he uses it. His output of revenant is also terrifyingly powerful; he feels like a fully realized version of Kodak, only he has more wisdom. Only his revenant doesn't exit his body; it stays condensed within and releases in short bursts of power. Wait a minute!)"
Ashiro activated his flame core, trying to condense his aura like Kenzo was doing. "(So if I condense enough of my aura, I can achieve new levels of output!)"
Kenzo looked behind himself, smirking at Ashiro's discovery. "Looks like you figured out what most S-Ranks can do naturally. Well done, however, turn your powers off now." Kenzo's voice echoed with authority as his eyes then glowed a dark purple.
Ashiro immediately deactivated his technique once more. "(If training with a Kawanari is anything like my family said, then I'd rather just go back to training with Godai.)"
Masaki laughed at Ashiro. "S-Rank my ass, your incompetent as that blonde girl!"
Kenzo then instantly grabbed Masaki by her hoodie, and an intense aura of anger filled the area. "You might be an S-Rank in terms of potential, but you better stop acting like you earned that title. There's nothing I hate more than a spoiled brat." Kenzo then drops Masaki on the asphalt, his harsh demeanor slightly angering Masaki. "(What the fuck do you know?)"
Words echo through her mind as she stares at Kenzo with a glaring look of bloodlust. "You're all the same. She's too happy, too creepy, too sad. When will you make up your fucking mind?"
A memory of her early parents flashed in her mind, one that she didn't want to remember, but it was the only one that kept her from taking her own life. "(Ever since I awakened my revenant, I've been hated!)" Her eyes then go a dark red, and her energy climbs with the bloodlust emanating from her.
1 year ago...
Masaki runs through the meadow of lush, grassy hills, closely watched by her parents and older brother. "Come on, Hitoshi!" Masaki said to a tall teen. His hair was messy, long, and black, complementing the traditional gothic look he had. "I wanna go play in the meadows!" Masaki said as she ran further into the fields. He struggled to navigate through the itchy feeling of the grass. "Hold up, Masaki!" He pleaded, not wanting to leave his younger sister behind.
Hitoshi runs deeper into the grass, seeing Masaki entering a forest. Panic settles into his mind as a scream quickly follows. Their parents rush into the forest immediately, and Hitoshi quickly follows his parents.
Masaki looks in front of her, seeing a large black mutated bear. Tears form as fear instills within her mind. Masaki wanted to run, scream, and fight, but she couldn't. The fear caused by the bear was too much. Voices of Masaki's parents echoed through the forest as they started yelling at the bear, but it didn't budge. It then started growling back at them.
Masaki wanted to tell them to run, but she couldn't. The words just couldn't escape her lips, leaving her to watch the bear tear through her parents. Her father groaned in pain as the bear chomped down on his stomach, and he coughed up blood, as her mother smacked the bear. "YOU LET GO, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!" But the only thing Masaki's poor mother met was the bear slamming its giant paws into her, smacking her dead with a single blow. The animal then threw Masaki's father across the ground. His body rolled slowly. Until he stopped short of his daughter.
Masaki's hands started shaking, and as she tried putting pressure on his wound, he grabbed her bloody hand. "Don't blame yourself, live your life, and forget about us." Masaki cried even more intensely. "H-how... I can't...!"
A blue light screen then formed from thin air, and a sound of a notification like a phone echoed in Masaki's ear.
[Revenant Unlocked, Innate Technique: AOE Energy!]
The bear snarled at Masaki as a strange feeling of grief, anger, and sadness overwhelmed her body. "You...damn animal." Masaki stood up with her eyes completely bloodshot. She pointed at the bear, and the same red energy crackled her fingertips; it was powerful and unstable, but Masaki didn't care. "(I don't why I feel such negative emotions, but my body moved on its own and I just wanted to murder that damned creature.)"
"DIE YOU DAMN BEAR!"
Hitoshi rushed down the hill, seeing the corpse of both his parents. "What the hell?" A feeling of distress and sickness overcame Hitoshi as he saw the mauled bodies of his mother and father, but that brief moment of grief for his fallen parents was shattered as the bear roared at Hitoshi. "YOU CAN'T EVEN RESPECT THE DEAD, CAN YOU!?" He was angry at his weakness, his scared nature to avoid the bear, leaving his parents for dead. But what angered him even more intensely was the bear not even respecting his parents. He looked up into the sky, wishing for the bear to be killed ruthlessly.
A large gust of wind then blew through the small forest, and trees flew into the air from the intense wind pressure, their roots being ripped from the ground as a large red light shined through the forest. Hitoshi could barely make out the figure of who was using such destructive power, but it was his sister, Masaki Tsukiko. He screamed for his sister, not wanting any more harm to be done to her, be it physical or mental. "MASAKI, WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"
Masaki's eyes widen as she fires the attack at the bear, the energy blast spreads out wide, becoming more chaotic and unpredictable. The bear roars at Masaki as the attack destroys it completely. The ground and trees around them are torn to shreds. Hitoshi closes his eyes from the intense attack. "(What the hell is going on!)"
A sharp pain shoots through Hitoshi's stomach, and he slowly looks down, seeing a large shard from one of the trees stabbed completely through his stomach. Blood drips from his mouth, prompting him to cough up blood as he falls to the ground.
Masaki walked through the smoke made from the attack, seeing the dead body of the bear as she tripped over it from the obstruction of her vision. "Servers you right you damn bear."
"M-Masaki... help." The sounds of Hitoshi could be heard, muffled by his struggling breathing. Masaki rushed through the smoke, seeing her brother impaled and bleeding right next to their dead parents. "HITOSHI NO!" Masaki yelled for her brother, and guilt weighed on her mind.
Her energy became more unstable as her body began shaking.
[Warning: Your body is not able to handle this much AOE energy!]
Masaki's body groaned and creaked with every step, she could feel the energy crushing her bones and joints. Masaki then fell to her knees, emotions from what she did to Hitoshi overwhelmed her. "(How could I do that to him!)"
The image of his smile throughout the years played again and again, until the only thing she could remember was how she killed her sweet and caring older brother. "(WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DIE, WHY CAN'T I DIE INSTEAD!?)"
[Stored up Formation: Pulsing Shockwave!]
Masaki then feels something leaving her body. Almost like a weight was being lifted from her burdened shoulders. Sparks of the red energy crackled as Masaki then let out a scream of rage from the emotions she was feeling from the death of he family.
The shockwave of red energy tore through the land as the ground cracked, and split open.
Masaki then looked up, back in the present. "ALL YOU OLD BASTARDS DO IS LOOK DOWN ON PEOPLE THAT DON'T FIT YOUR UNREALISTIC STANDARDS!"
[Skill: Area Aura Activated Strongly!]
The energy from Masaki suddenly rises in output and power, taking even Kenzo by surprise. "(She's this strong even at her current age?!)"
[Skill: Aura of the Wise Activated!]
Masaki then feels her energy being pushed back as she watches Kenzo step through the energy with minimum effort. Kenzo then speaks as the energy doesn't even touch him. "So tell me, was this fight worth it?"
[Skill: Truth Seeking Eyes Activated!]
Kenzo's eyes glow an even moredark shade of purple. Masaki then hears a voice echo in her mind. "Was your brother's death that worthless?"
Masaki's eyes widened in fear of what the words meant. "(NO!)" She crouched to the ground, holding her head in pain. "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Kenzo then stood over Masaki as she continued screaming. "Then what is your reason for doing all this? What do you fight for? What do you know of sacrifice or suffering?"
Masaki's aura then spiked in power at the last question, the red energy becoming darker and more malicious. She instantly stood up from the ground and powered through the energies clashing, stabbing the energy shrouding Kenzo."WHAT DO YOU KNOW!? SPEND MOST OF YOUR LIFE BULLIED AND OSTRACIZED FOR BEING 'THE WEIRD ONE'. WATCH YOUR PARENTS AND BROTHER DIE BECAUSE OF YOUR FOOLISH ACTIONS!"
Masaki then dropped her daggers and collapsed, falling to the ground in tears."What makes... You righteous!?"
Kenzo deactivated his skill and kneeled at Masaki."I know of suffering, loneliness, and loss. It's what you make of it that changes the way you treat those around you. I hope you understand I meant no harm, only to know why you do this."
Ashiro watched in awe, seeing how Kenzo had so easily de-escalated the situation. "(Not only is he strong, but he's wise and understanding of those who have gone through their fair share of suffering.)"
Fumiko and the others then deactivated their techniques, seeing as the situation was de-escalated properly.
"Never thought someone as strong Kenzo would be capable of such unwavering kindness." She whispered Ashiro's ear. He snickered at Fumiko's statement, trying not to laugh too loud.
Kenzo then springs up from the kneeling stance, excitement and eagerness echoed within his voice. "Alright, grab your stuff kiddos. We have to meet with the reamining S-Ranks!"