Nanatsu no Okoko no Kenshi
Season 01 : The New Generation Rises!
Arc 01 : The Tournament of Candidates
Episode 01 : The Failure's First Victory
[Capital Castle]
[10:12]
"Your Majesty, we have a bit of a dilemma." A man spoke, inside a throne room that had a green vibrant color that indicated life to them, why else would Earth be called the Living Realm? The room also had a substantial amount of potted plants placed here and there, with a few overstaying their welcome by growing into the walls and through the ceilings, giving the room an earthy feel to it. The man that kneeled in front of a bright green throne that had the Crest of a tree that had flourishing roots and branches had a fair skin tone, onyx eyes, white and wild white hair. He wore brown pants, a sort of black flack jacket that had multiple pieces of armour in key areas so as not to inhibit movement but still enough to provide protection, said pieces of armour being green in color. The man wore black boots and had green fingerless gloves, a belt around his waist that was green in color with the insignia that represented the Living Realm on a metal plate that was on the belt along "What issue is that, Nagasaki?" A man on the throne asked with an eyebrow raised. He was a bit pale, had short black hair that was neatly combed and blue eyes, who looked to be around his mid thirties. The man wore a robe that was green in coloration with golden accents. There was a desk in front of him with a good amount of papers littered across, the man writing onto a few papers but still paying attention to his surroundings. "King Shinji, It seems that one of the entrants in our tournament for candidates to become the next Swordsmen to represent the Living Realm as a member of the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms has listed no apparent Special Sword Skill. She goes by the name Chiaki Hoshinomori, should we remove her?" The man now identified as Nagasaki asked respectfully. "No, I would like to see how things pan out. I doubt she will make it and even if she does, the other two candidates will outshine her. Also, she's from the Hoshinomori clan? Granddaughter of the Second King of the Living Realm? It is peculiar to have no apparent skill in the most dominant art in this world while being birthed from such a splendid clan."
The man now identified as King Shinji; the ruler of the Living Realm spoke. He was not much of a fighter or a swordsman, but was still an excellent ruler, who showed fair judgement despite his his own personal views or opinions on different matters. He was not the only non swordsman King, being the fifth King to seize the throne, many Kings before him did not seem much like Swordsmen, the only one ever being a swordsman being Ryuzaki Hoshinomori; the most powerful Living Realm swordsman in history and the fourth most powerful in his generation of the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms, no other succeeding Swordsmen or ones that came before even holding a candle to the power he possessed. "Your Majesty, but with all due respect, despite being in a family known to breed prodigies, even her father is in the top 10 most powerful Swordsmen of this Realm, is it not a waste to enter her into the tournament knowing she might not make it whatever the case?" Nagasaki questioned King Shinji's judgement. "That does not take away her right to enter the tournament now does it? Any clan that is branded a battle clan is always urged to enter at least one candidate into the tournament. Besides, she is not the only Hoshinomori participating, so leave her be and finalise everything, the tournament shall start in less than 2 hours." Shinji answered and Nagasaki nodded respectfully, standing up and walking out of the room.
[Living Realm Arena C15]
[12:00]
The large arena that was colored in the Realm's signature pigmentation was going wild, filled to the brim with over tens of thousands of people all around, ready for the one of the biggest events of the year; the Tournament of Candidates. A woman who had lime green hair, olive eyes and tanned skin which wore a green Japanese style dress with golden accents and black flats walked into the epicenter of the arena, where the battles would take place. She had a tool of sorts that would amplify her voice. "Welcome all to the Tournament of Candidates!" She said and the crowd cheered, obviously eager for the battles to begin. "All rise for the Living Realm's strongest Swordsmen and a member of the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms; Suzaku Masomu and our Majesty, the ruler of our Realm; King Shinji Matou!" The lady introduced and on a higher area that the usual arena seats, was the duo, waving as the crowd cheered, already having stood up. King Shinji and Suzaku sat down on their seats as the crowd followed not long after. "Now before we begin, some ground rules. Contestants are not allowed to kill their opponent, the only way to win is knockout, if the opponent can't continue or if your opponent forfeits or is disqualified. Outside help or weaponry is prohibited unless it is one's Sword. Now without further ado, let the tournament commence! The first matchup of the first round is....." She paused as a screen appeared, what was shown on it moving in such a way that one would call it a randomizer or a raffle to put it simply.
The movement inside the screen began to slow down to reveal two pictures with two names written in Japanese kanji and the versus abbreviation on in between the two pictures. "Ikaku Yamauchi VS Goro Yoroi!" The lady called the first two names and the crowd cheered as she began to walk away while on either side of the arena, two male individuals walked towards each other and stopping once there was a distance of 5 meters between each other. The individual on one side had light blonde hair that was faded around the sides, black eyes and pale, borderline white skin. He wore black pants, red boots, and a few small patches of black armour here and there such as the upper part of his chest, his forearms, shoulders and back with red mesh armour underneath the armour. On his back was a thin type of sword with a black hilt sheathed into a red vessel, placed in such a way that it was diagonal with the hilt coming into view from behind the teen's right shoulder. The teen looked to be around 14 years old and he had a nonchalant expression plastered on his face, staring directly at his opponent as his left hand reached over to his right shoulder and gripped onto the hilt of the weapon, unsheathing it and holding it in reverse grip. The blade of the sword was unlike most, it was a shining black color that looked as if it reflected the sun's rays rather than absorbed it. "You must be Ikaku." The teen known as Goro greeted, yet instead got ignored and glared. "Let's hope your swordsmanship is better than your social skills." He mumbled.
Goro had Raven black hair that stopped at his shoulders with two bangs almost hanging over his eyes to obstruct his vision, vibrant glowing green eyes and a fair skin tone. He wore a simple outfit which consisted of a green jacket with mesh armour underneath, bandages around his arms and hands, grey pants that were armoured around the knees and the thighs, and red boots. His katana rested on the right side of his waist and had a gold hilt with green accents in black sheath, which he pulled out and the metal had a shining silver color. The two teens stared at each other for another second before Goro charging towards Ikaku, performing a horizontal slash from his right to the left but it was easily blocked by Ikaku's blade that was still held in reverse grip, a testament of how skilled he was in the art of swordsmanship. The Yamauchi clan was never known for extensive skill in swordsmanship, only breeding average to below average swordsmen, but it seemed that Ikaku was an exception, a prodigy. From there on Ikaku's right leg moved up, to kick Goro in the waist which seemed like a good tactical move given the fact that he had been using both hands to perform the previous assault, thus leaving him open to attacks and such an attack proved to be successful, sending Goro flying across the battlefield. Ikaku turned to face his opponent that was now on the ground, the blade of his sword no longer shining and from the shadowy around, multiple versions of the prodigy formed at a number of 10 as they gathered behind him and with a simple nod they charged towards Goro, their physical forms creating their own shadows that extended out to Goro's, immobilizing him. "Dark Shadow : Tsukuyomi!" Ikaku yelled with a maniacal grin as the shadows began stabbing the opponent, only the limbs though so as to follow the rules of no killing. "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" He screamed in agonizing pain and after around 3 minutes of stabbing all of the shadows disappeared and Goro laid in a pool of his own blood multiple holes in his limbs, breathing heavily. "The winner is Ikaku Yamauchi!" The lady said as the crowd cheered and the prodigy walked away into the entrance he walked out of in the first time, sheathing his blade.
It was another 2 matches that went on uneventfully before it was time for the fourth match. The screen had two pictures with names underneath and the versus abbreviation between them. "The fourth first round matchup is Chiaki Hoshinomori VS Druvious "Kai" Raserei!!" The lady said again from her commentating booth and the crowd went wild, wilder than they were for the fights before. This was because, just like the Hoshinomori, the Raserei clan was known for bringing up prodigies, such as Frank, Hendrix and Zephyr, Frank and Hendrix ranking number 4 and 3 in the strongest Swordsmen of the Living Realm list while Zephyr number ranked 11, outmatching the Hoshinomori in terms of the number of prodigies since said clan was known to have only bred Ryuzaki along with Ayato Hoshinomori, both who ranked one after the other in the Living Realm's top 10 strongest Swordsmen, though this was long ago, it was a new era. From either entrance of the arena, two individuals walked out to meet each other at the center of the loud arena. On one side was a Male, who looked to be around the age of 15 years old. He had Raven black hair that wildly laid on his head, stopping at his shoulders, deep crimson eyes and a pale skin tone and was of average height. He wore a small Cape that stopped at his lower back that was blue in color and was held together by a button on the front. He had two white belts around his waist with grey buckles and a grey to blue t shirt with mesh armour underneath, black pants, bandages around the lower part of his legs with peculiar blue sandals. His tanto was on his left shoulder which had a purple hilt and a red sheath. This was the promising prodigy of the Raserei; Druvious. He had a focused look on his face, unable to be distracted, or at least he refused.
On the other side of the arena, across Druvious was a female that was not as tall but not too short. She had a fair skin tone, shining purple eyes, black hair with purple ends and a large butterfly hairpin, pink lips and a well developed body despite being 14 years old. She wore a black long sleeved dress with gold buttons going up the chest of the dress and 3 cufflinks on each wrist along with a white belt with a white buckle along with a white shirt underneath. She also wore a robe that was dominantly white along with pink and blue in a butterfly pattern and traditional Japanese sandals with white socks. Her sword rested on the left side of her waist and the part of the hilt that was gripped was predominantly black with white accents and white a diamond pattern while the part close to the blade was gold with 4 expanding butterfly wings that of blue sapphires, the sheath was a simple white color. This was the girl dubbed as the failure of the Hoshinomori clan due to possessing no Special Sword Skill; Chiaki Hoshinomori. She had an unsure look on her face, sort of scared but she refused to give up despite facing a possible prodigy. Chiaki's hand reached to the left side of her curvy waist, unveiling her katana from it's vessel with a glare. Druvious unveiled his own blade while Chiaki charged towards him, performing a diagonal slash from up to down across the chest but Druvious was simply too fast, appearing behind her and holding her in a full Nelson. "Give up." He simply said as Chiaki squirmed, an uncomfortable look on her face. "No!" She yelled as she moved her head from the front to the back to strike the prodigal swordsman in the mouth, the hairpin adding extra force.and causing him to let go as Chiaki moved forward, away from her opponent. Chiaki might not have been a prodigy or even have a Special Sword Skill, but what she lacked in physical power, she made up for it in intelligence.
Druvious charged towards her turned back but she heard his footsteps, performing a baseball slide to move under his legs as she stood up and attempted to slash at his back but it was blocked by his own tanto as he turned his head and his body partially to face her, his crimson eyes boring a hole into her own and intimidating a bit, reminding her that she was the inferior one in this battle and using this moment where Chiaki lost her concentration thinking about her shortcomings, Druvious pushed her back, her blade falling out of her hands as it flew to the side and embedding itself into the ground. This resulted in Druvious' tanto striking Chiaki in the midsection. "AAAAH!" Chiaki screamed as she was lifted up sideways by Kai, a smirk on his face as he launched the teenage girl across the arena who made a hard landing with a thud as her body touched the ground, her hairpin falling off and freeing her long luxurious locks that covered her eyes, pain coursing through her entire body as she touched the wound on her side with a yelp, moving her hand up to her eyes finding that it was stained with blood. The crowd was cheering, going completely wild while Chiaki began to force herself to her feet, crawling to her Sword that was on her right. "Time to end this." Druvious said as his tanto glowed a purple color as the tip pointed at the crawling female who glanced at the Raserei for only a moment before realizing what was to follow.
'It's the Raserei's Blade Pistol! Think, think think....' Chiaki continously thought before a purple sphere was fired towards her from Druvious' tango but by this time she already had her katana in hand and had made it to a vertical base as the sphere that was the size of a soccer ball struck her blade. "Blade Pistol!" Druvious yelled but his attack was not not to explode due to the alterations Chiaki had made to her weapon before time. She knew what most clans were famous for and so had made alterations to her blade to better resist said skills such as changing the metal of her blade to Platinum as she knew that the Blade Pistol could be reflected by certain substances and Platinum was one of them. The sphere eventually flew back to Druvious at a much faster speed and covering the distance of 7 meters between them in less than a second and the moment it struck him, an explosion occured, and once it died down, Druvious was embedded into the wall with blood trickling down his mouth as he fell off the wall and struck the ground. "Um...the winner is Chiaki Hoshinomori!!" The lady's voice echoed throughout the arena. It was dead quiet, complete shock etched onto the faces of many before one began to clap and soon the entire followed, cheering loudly. Chiaki was shocked, she actually did it! A smile was on her face for a moment as her pain began to catch up to her, running on adrenaline the last few moments of the match as she dropped to the ground, passing out. From King Shinji and Suzaku's stand. "She's impressive, I honestly didn't see her winning this." Suzaku said with a nod and King Shinji smiled. "This could only be luck, therefore still more skilled Swordsmen like Shun." He said, yet deep down he could honestly say that he was impressed with the intelligence that the girl had, but since he was the King he was not allowed to give out biased opinions, even if they were just opinions, but the could feel it, that this girl was soon to be the Living Realm's strongest Swordswoman.