Night One Hundred And Sixty Three
Age 1991
Gladious City...
The Arena...
"Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic!"
We start in the middle of a battle...
At the edge of a small little mountain town known as Gladious, a massive stone stadium rested. It was incredible large, nearly the size of a city itself. It floated off of the ground suspended in the air above. Next to it several large hotel looking things could be seen built to the side. Within the stadium five main things can be seen... The first was twelve sections down near the bottom of the metal floor. Each section was filled with Enforcer recruits and labeled one through twelve. The second was rows of seats filled with a vast amount of guests who all came to watch this Ages fights. The third was a section where all the Captains, Vice Captains, Four Sacred Beasts, Master Storm, and pretty much any other Enforcer rested. The fourth was high above resting on a slope and showed Empresses Aka sitting in her throne the HR members all around her who all stared pale faced at the last, and fifth thing...
A massive metal arena. It was a simple flat surface that stood tall above everyone... And within it two Enforcer recruits could be seen, waves of explosion's from shock waves, and their cursed life powers coming off of them.
The first almost looked like Dawson's red demon form, but was made out of thick black tendrils that were wrapped around his body. He was unleashing powerful cries so loud they were cracking the metal as his black tendril arm was ripping the arena apart and he screamed... And his opponent was someone new... A young seventeen year old man who was dressed in a pair of simple black robes. He had light blue hair, with a silver stripe in it, and a pair of blank silver eyes.
He had a blank, and almost bored look on his face as he side stepped literal explosions of sound, and chunks of metal, as if it was nothing. Every movement he made almost seemed to leave behind after images of himself. It was as if he was moving even faster than Ken had, when she was in her cat form, but in a casual almost mocking manner.
"Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic! You're pathetic Seraphin!" The black devil roared hundreds of tendrils exploding out of his back and jamming into the ground as he ripped up chunks of sharp metal with them. The covered his left arm wrapping around it making it much larger and giving it a metal bracer as he fired forward.
The blue haired man finally showed the smallest amount of emotion as a smirk seemed to cross onto his face and he to leapt forward. Both enemies brought their arms out and slammed them into each other blasting apart a massive impact of heat and sound.
Down below Hero and Ken could both be seen staring at the fighting with wide eyes. Massive shock waves were blowing everyone around them back but those two some how managed to stay standing.
"Wow! He really took my advice didn't he!" Hero laughed.
"This is... It's so unreal..." Ken hissed covering her face with her hands as waves of dust was exploding out. "Those two are on another level? No way they're just recruits... They're both even stronger than North... Maybe even our Captain Katrina!"
"This is..." Kitsune stood behind them his sword in the ground as he tried to remain standing. Irene, Light, and Shelly hung off of him. "This is impossible right?"
In several of the other sections it would seem as if everyone else was having panicked looks save for a few folks. Hero Law was one of the folks who didn't seem to worried by the massive explosion of power that was going on in the arena. Several people were actually being picked up off the ground by the sheer raw levels of energy that were coming off the arena.
"How you holding up!" Max yelled to Hero from the Squad One brackets.
"Honestly. I'll admit I'm kinda scared." Hero laughed.
"Yeah... I am to... Those two... Their monsters..."
Up in the stands several people looked frightened. In the box Daughter clung to her fathers leg.
Master Storm let out a small chuckle running his hand through his head. "I knew I shouldn't have let them compete in this game... After all... Those two were both deemed so strong we didn't even bother having them go through the Enforcer try outs and just let them join a Squad... Honestly I had no idea they had this much power though... This will do nicely for defeating our enemies... I hope you're Jester. You're seeing the power of the Enforcers."
High above the Empresses rested a frown on her face. "That old fool... He's been hiding so many of his 'toys' from me... Maybe I should just kill him and have him replaced..." She watched the Black Demon and Blue haired man continue their fight as her eye twitched. "Still... I'll actually admit it old fool... Those two are actually managing to scare me. You really went and pulled all the stops on this Ages soldiers didn't you?"
"Pathetic!" The Black demon roared as he fired into the air. He seemed to ball up into a... Well a ball as a massive amount of energy seemed to suddenly start rolling off of him in massive waves of heat. "Dark Nova!" He screamed firing a beam of heat, energy, and sound out of himself which was massive. Even bigger than anything Hero, Kitsune, or even Jackson fired out.
Down in the arena the blue haired man was now openly smiling. "Seems like I'll need to actually try now... Okay... Since you went ahead and fired off your trump card allow me to do the same." A explosion of blue energy seemed to morph out of his body as what looked like a massive blue energy arm began to rise out of his back. "Susanoo no Mikoto!" He announced as the arm morphed into a massive blue energy blade the size of a small bus which he grabbed with both his arms. "Sky Splitter. Devour the Heavens!"
Finally down in the stands Hero showed a bit of worry. "Oh crap!" He brought his right arm up as it glowed and morphed becoming his new metallic shield. "I was wanting to save this for when I fought Max but screw it! Everyone get behind me!" He yelled right as the two attacks in the arena met and a massive explosion bigger than the entire stadium began to expand out towards everyone. Hero stood his ground though as he punched out as hard as he could with his new arm. "Gates Of Hell!"
And in a single blast...
Everything was covered by a white and blue energy.
But from who it was hard to tell...
But just how did we get to such a crazy and destructive point?
In order to find that out let's go back, by just a bit...
***
Sometime Earlier...
"Earth to big brother! Are you there!"
"What?" Hero asked shaking his head as he looked around. He currently was seated on a simple silver train that moved down the icy tracks at a fast speed. On the train there was Kitsune, Ken, Irene, Light, who was next to him, Shelly, who was also sadly next to him, Katrina, Hannah, Dawson, Jackson, and Santa.
"I asked if you were excited big brother!" Light said giving a large grin.
"Oh... I guess?" Hero shrugged.
"You guess?" Kitsune asked. ""We're going to get rank up and become bronze rank Enforcers and fight strong people!"
"I can't wait to fight so many strong people!" Ken said excitedly with stars in her eyes.
"Is fighting all you think about?" Shelly asked frowning.
"Is ice cream all you think about about?"
"What does that have to do with anything? And no... Currently I'm thinking about how nice it'll be to rank up!" Shelly smirked.
"Hold your horses." Katrina said waving her hand down. "It won't be that easy. This years the test isn't to hard, but only thirty two people will be ranking up."
"Out of sixty four!" Kitsune asked shocked.
"Than we'll crush thirty to other people." Irene said blankly. She had gone back to the girl she was when she first joined. Dead set on her goal. Hero hadn't even had a chance to talk to her as the moment she got back Katrina rushed them all to the train. The only person who seemed to be able to even talk to Irene at all was Kitsune now... It kind of hurt Hero. He had been ready to move on but he didn't think the pain in his heart would have been that massive.
Jackson gave a slight grin as he waved his hands. "Well... Let me explain the rules for any of you that are confused. Basically at the end of each Age the Enforcers hold these games... This is the Bronze rank up games. Silver and Gold, were held earlier this month already but you guys were away on missions. This Age the games involve a simple single elimination tournament round. One on one fighting. Sixty Four fighters in total. In order to pass you just need to finish one round. So thirty two people will be getting their badges, and thirty two people will be failed."
"Sixty four?" Hero frowned for a moment. "Wait... But the Enforcers are only allowed to have five new people per squad... So five times twelve is sixty, plus there are squads like One, and seven which didn't take all five? So how are there sixty four? That math doesn't add up?"
"This is the hard, and sort of unfair part..." Dawson said letting out a small hiss. "Basically... There are three kinds of people in this tournament. Normal recruits like you guys, which are simply normal people who joined the Enforcers, held back recruits, which are recruits who failed last years test so they're still on their Squad and are just retaking it, this year, meaning they're actually a year ahead of you hence the unfair part, and finally what we call the secret recruits... People who skipped being recruited and were placed in a Squad without the others knowing... Shelly is actually a secret recruit of sorts, besides our Squad, and Squad One, every other Squad still thinks she's a member of Squad One... The secret guys are brought out for these games... You see the games are gonna be viewed across the whole red Nation plus hundreds will show up to see it. So we show off their power and use it to inspire the people. That's sort of the point of these games. To inspire the citizens."
"Yeah so don't go losing in the first match..." Katrina said flatly making everyone shudder when they saw the look in her eyes.
"Yes Captain!" Everyone said.
"What's on your mind Hero?" Hannah asked sliding into the seat next to Hero.
"Oh? I was just thinking about the fact we're going to Gladious." Hero shrugged.
"You know Gladious?" Jackson questioned.
"We grew up there for a while." Hannah nodded throwing her arm over Hero's shoulder. "Lived with Piero and Mary. Course Piero went mad and took Hero leaving me alone with Mary until I went off and became a badass Enforcer-"
"Hang on..." Ken frowned for a moment. "You're calling him Hero."
"What?"
"You always call Hero, Row for some reason. Why are you calling him Hero now?"
Hannah gave a small shrug. "I just figured it'd be easier on all of you. Does it really matter what I call my little brother?"
"So Hero you grew up in Gladious?" Shelly asked changing the subject. "What was that like?"
"Yeah. It was a quiet mountain life." He shrugged.
Irene let out a small snort. "A quiet mountain life huh... Yeah it looks quiet."
"What does that mean-" Hero stopped as his eyes went wide.
The train slowly pulled to a stop and as soon as the doors pulled open Hero jumped out and landed on the snow below. The small little mountain village was gone. Now there was a massive stone city. Large statues of Okami Otoko rested everywhere! Tall stone buildings, and up in the air a massive floating stone fortress.
"Oh yeah... They kind of changed the city..." Hannah snickered. "Sorry little bro. Slipped my mind."
"Every Age the Games are held in the assigned cities of a Squad." Dawson announced stepping out and placing a hand on Hero's shoulder. "This Age the games are held in the city Squad Two Guards. It was built here when The squad Two Vice Captain, Mary Law suggested it."
"M... Mary! Wait? Mom became an Enforcer!" Hero asked turning to look at Hannah.
"Haha... Not... Not exactly Hero- Hero! Where are you going!" She yelled when she saw the young boy run off.
"I'm going back to moms tavern!" Hero yelled back.
'I don't really get what's going on...' Row hummed. 'Mom never had an Equation... She was just a normal human? She wasn't even our real mother... She took care of me when I stayed here... Technically you don't even know her since I made you after those events.'
"I've already told you Row!" Hero said shaking his head. "I didn't just get most of your memoires. I got the emotions you felt to... All that love and desire... How could I not view her as our mother-" Hero came to a sliding stop as he stared at what was once a Tavern.
It still looked like the tavern but it had been changed slightly. At the top of it the words 'Squad Two' could be seen.
'Those bastards turned Moms tavern into their base!'
"Cheers!"
"Let's all drink up to another successful mission!" Several voice yelled from the inside making Hero nearly stumble.
Hero gulped as he walked forward and pushed open the doors stepping inside. It looked almost the same just more modern. Better tables and stuff. Many Enforcers were inside all wearing two's on them showing they were from Squad Two.
"Hey get a load at the Squad Six recruit which walked in!" One of the drunk men asked letting out a loud laugh.
Hero ignored them as he walked in and looked around for a moment. "What the hell are all these punks doing here-"
"Yo Mary! Pour me another drink."
"Pour it ya self!"
Hero stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the voice.
'Hero... Turn around... I want to see her...'
Hero did, not because Row asked him to, but because he also had to see. Standing next to the counter he saw her... She was dressed in an Enforcer uniform and she had a weird smug smirk on her face as she laughed at some joke someone was telling her.
"Yo Mary. Someones totally checking you out."
"What-" The girl stopped her smile fading when she saw him. Hero and her just stared back at each other for a moment. A silence seemed to stretch out between them as their ears muffled out the rest of the bar and the two only stared at each other. The feeling a child could get only after not seeing their parents for years and finally seeing them once more. Finally Mary managed a small grin as she stepped forward. "How are ya doing ya damn brat?" She asked reaching out and placing a hand on the top of his head. Her grin grew larger and Hero stared into his eyes and realized who this was. "Can your hero chop can cut through steel? Row?"
"You're... Okami Otoko..."