Nanatsu no Okoko no Kenshi
Season 01 : The New Generation Rises!
Arc 01 : Tournament of Candidates
Episode 03 : Why?
[[OP : Unravel]]
[Demon Realm, Arena A09]
[14:50]
It was currently the second matchup of the Semi-Finals and the audience was enjoying it, yet not as much as the previous battle. "Kyro, I'll be back." Lord Shinso said as he stood up and walked out of the stands reserved for him and Kyro. He was on a mission, determined to find out, find out why her daughter; the Demon Mistress would want to pur herself through so much pain, so much turmoil when she had everything she needed and wanted, and could get even more if she simply asked. He walked through the arena's red colored halls, which held the pictures of all of the winners of all the Tournament's previous winners from the first all the way up to Kyro, the most recent winner. Shinso continued to walk until he turned to his right to see a door, grabbing the doorknob with his clawed hands and turning it as he entered the room once he pushed the door open to reveal both of the previous contestants; Junsei and Uzume on separate beds, both of them having regained consciousness due to their quick healing abilities but they looked to be in excruciating pain. They were changed out of their battle outfits and into red medical gowns while a woman who had brown skin, small red horns protruding from the sides of her head, long yet well taken care of claws that were red, black eyes and ginger colored hair that was in a low ponytail. She had the perfect body in most aspects and looked to be very young, in Demon aspects. She wore a red dress with the Demon Realm's insignia on the left breast which stopped at her knees. She had also had a name tag that had her name written in Zenith; the Demon language. Steam had filled the room, as a result of both of the demons' healing abilities. The lady was busy with Uzume, running her claws onto Uzume's burns that were healing on their own but it was still slowed down by the fact that this ability had to be equally distributed throughout the entirety of her body so it was slowed down to be 99% weaker than intended. As the lady ran her claws onto the burns, they appeared to look better, an emerald green energy being visible on her claws that appeared on Uzume's injuries as well. In order to keep Junsei stabilized, she had bandages tied around the entirety of her body which made her look like the complete opposite of the fierce and powerful girl that had been in the arena. Junsei now looked frail, weakened, vulnerable, daddy's girl. "Junsei!" Lord Shinso exclaimed with a worried expression as he ran up to her side, checking on the injuries that she had.
"Dad...." Junsei managed to let out as she attempted to lift her hand up to reach him but the pain she felt was too much to handle. Steam was also emitting throughout the entirety of her body through small holes made in the bandages designed for the Demon Physiology in order to allow them to emit their steam even though their bandaged. "Lord Shinso!" The lady said respectfully even though she was shocked by his sudden arrival. She quickly bowed but was politely dismissed by the Demon Lord. "What the hell were you thinking?! You almost killed yourself!" He shouted in a tone that was a mixture of fury at such a stupid decision along with worry that her daughter was in such a state. "Tell me, why do you want this? Why do you want risk your life again and again when you have everything? Just say the word, tell me what you want and I'll make sure you get it! Just stop thi...." Lord Shinso trailed off as tears began to fall down his crimson colored face. "I don't want to lose you...you're the only thing I care about in this world..." He broke down and Junsei's expression turned into a sombre one. She now felt angry at herself for putting her father through so much emotional pain all because she wanted something more than she already had. But she had to do this, she had to continue, she had to prove herself. Harnessing all of the strength she had, Junsei lifted her left arm, where his father was standing and she wiped the tears off his face, with many painful winces here and there. "Look Dad, I don't want to see you like this, but you have to understand that I just can't stop, no, I won't stop. This is just something I have to do, I want to become my own woman, independent. I don't just want to be known as the Demon Mistress, I want to be known as the strongest Swordsmen in the history of all of the Realms'. I want to build my own reputation....and honour mom's legacy as a swordswoman by doing what she couldn't. I'm sorry, but....this just what I have to do." Junsei said weakly with a small smile gracing her frail features. "Jun...." Lord Shinso was speechless, using the nickname she had given her daughter as a child. Junsei had grown and matured so much from the little frail girl her mother brought into the world that was always treated like a princess who wanted to one day rule the Demon Realm above all else to the new young woman with much bigger ambitions and the desire to become the best to ever exist. Lord Shinso was not far from proud of how his daughter had turned out and even though it hurt to see her like this every time, he was willing to support her and he dream to the very end. "Jun, there are no words to describe how proud you have made me over these years and hearing these words from you honestly hurt a bit since you told your mother you wanted to succeed me. I guess things changed when you realized what was truly happening around you. I'll support you, no matter what." The Demon Lord declared as tears welled up in Junsei's eyes. This was part of what she needed, support from her father in order to keep going through with this.
[Phantom Realm, A10]
[15:00]
"The second matchup of the Semi-Finals is Akane Matsumoto VS Akaru Matsuzaka!!" A feminine voice spoke up and the crowd around cheered. The area was sort of a desolate realm, with thick clouds of mist flying by along with the lack of sunlight in the area. However, it's residents could not be happier to live in such an area. This is the Phantom Realm, an area where all the dead from the Demon, Mage and Realm of Ra go when they pass away. Now this is not based off a stereotype in which all those who seem bad go to hell yet how you have lived your life dictates how your life in the Phantom Realm will be. Over time, there becomes an abundance of souls in the Phantom Realm, with each of them leaking EctoKi; Phantom Energy. This energy began to divide the Realm into two two places, the Phantom Realm of Life and the Phantom Realm of Death. The Phantom Realm of Life's residents were formed a good 2000 years ago with the abundant EctoKi, developing semi-physical bodies that made them the bridge between the the Realms of the living and those of the dead. Their bodies began to adapt and evolve further, now being able to switch between their physical and phantom forms at will and utilizing the infinite energy inside them to survive the harshness of their Realm which they have since then turned around. Joining the coalition as the third members of the Swordsmen of the Seven Realms, they became known as one of the most skillful realms in terms of swordsmanship. From either sides of the arena, two figures walked out, stopping once a distance of 15 meters was between them. On the left side was a female with fair skin, big light green eyes, and pink hair with green ends braided into 3 pigtails, 2 at the front and one at the back. She wore a black dress that stopped at a quarter of her thighs and it was pleated similar to a school skirt. The upper part of the dress was a sort of burton up with gold buttons and neither of them aside from the main one at her neck and the one at the bottom were closed, exposing her large chest to the audience. She also wore a white long sleeved shirt underneath the dress, had a white belt with a pink heart shaped buckle, a white robe over her back connected to the outfit, green leg warmers/socks that went up to the middle of her thighs with vertical stripes and brown sandals. As for her weapon, her katana was tied to her belt inside it's white sheath with the hilt being blue decorated with a pink heart pattern and the end that connected the blade to the hilt was made of 4 pink hearts around it. The girl had a determined look on her face, glaring directly at her opponent.
On the other side was another teen. He had dark skin, silver eyes and white hair that was in a high ponytail with 3 bangs hanging out, the hair tied together by a black hair tie. He wore a white kimono with black accents that was open at the front to reveal his toned chest and stopped around his ankles. The kimono was tied with a belt that was black in color, with black shoulder pads underneath the outfit, a black choker, an earring that had that had a sort of white brush attached to it and a white headband. He also wore black gloves which were fingerless on all of the fingers except the index finger, black pants underneath, white socks and black sandals. He appeared to have no weapon in hand for just a moment until a black sheath became visible as it popped out of the right sleeve of his kimono, catching it with his left hand. His facial expression looked rather paranoid, one would say, as if there was something he saw that nobody else saw, yet he did his best to control himself, trying to fight through before the official battle had even begun as he held out a slightly trembling hand towards the girl. "I'm....Akaru, you must be Akane..." The teen now dubbed to be Akaru greeted respectfully, the girl was a bit freaked out a bit and thought that this could have been a ploy to lure her in but Akaru was being genuine. "I'm not falling for that, you sly bastard!" Akane shouted as she unsheathed her katana to reveal a shining green blade that was swiftly flipped around to be held on reverse grip, Akane taking a battle stance where her left hand was stretched outwards with her index and middle fingers stretched out as well only to curl a bit. Her legs were around 350 centimeters apart from each other, her left leg standing in front while her right was behind it. Akaru was shocked but ignored her reaction as he unsheathed his own weapon from it's vessel, his left hand holding the sheath while his right held the sword. There was a pause, a moment of complete silence in the entire arena before Akane decided to take initiative. She swiftly charged towards Akaru as her left hand clenched into a fist that flew towards his face which he quickly evaded, by tilting his head and jumping backwards to create some distance as he dropped to his knees, saying something, though it was too inaudible for Akane to hear. Not even bothering to give her opponent a chance to attack, her hair went from it's bright pink and light green to white, a bit of fading grey and black. Her eyes also changed in color, changing into a white color as well. Sparks of white electricity ran through the blade of Akane's katana as she charged towards Akaru. "Tsuki's Fury : Lover's Claw!" She yelled as she trusted her blade forward once 3 meters was between the two, releasing a hand that looked like it belonged to someone with surges of white electricity coursing through it. The hand was deathly pale and had black fingernails, aiming to grab Akaru's face but things did not go as planned. "LEAVE ME ALONE!!" Akaru yelled as he thrusted his sword at the hand, releasing a burst of green energy that caused said hand to disappear, and it also happened to catch Akane in it as well, sending her flying across the arena into the wall. She had a big cut on her chest that was leaking tremendous amounts of blood while she was out cold long ago. The entire crowd was shocked at such a turn of events. "Umm...the winner is, Akaru Matsuzaka!!" The voice spoke as he stood in shock at what he had done, slowly backing away before completely running away.
[Living Realm, Arena C15]
[15:14]
"Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that Ikaku Yamauchi's opponent is unable to make it due to unforeseen circumstances and in his place, Druvious Kai Raserei shall be Ikaku's opponent!" The lady in the commentary booth explained and there were murmurs in the crowd, wondering what had happened. From the ends of the arena, both figures walked out of face each other, a distance of 13 meters separating these two prodigies. Ikaku's right hand reached for his sword while Druvious' reached for his tanto, the sound of blades being freed from their vessels echoing in the arena. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the arena, due to the noise drowning things out, there were groans and yelps coming all the way from the arena's medical room. Ayato was still at it. "Where is it you bitch?! Where is your Special Sword Skill?!" Ayato asked in an infuriated tone as he punched her in the gut causing her yelp out in pain, blood trickling down her bottom lip from her mouth. Chiaki now looked in a much worse condition than she was found in, all because of a damn reputation that her father wanted to uphold. "You brat.....I w-" "Lord Ayato? I need to get in, it's almost your daughter's match and I have to patch her up so she won't be late." The lady on the outside spoke, causing Ayato to panic a bit before groaning as he placed his hand on her forehead and all of her injuries disappeared. The Hoshinomori clan leader stood up and walked over to the lady to open up the door to show Chiaki in perfect condition. She had a nervous smile on her face that she had quickly put on to keep the nurse under the impression that everything between the two of them was going well yet it was sadly far from that but she could not speak since she only caused more trouble for herself. Ayato walked out of the room after 'congratulating' Chiaki once more as he closed the door behind him. The nurse turned to face Chiaki with a big grin on her face. "It must be nice to have such a supportive father, he even healed you up for me!" She said and Chiaki laughed nervously as she looked down sadly fiddling with her fingers. "Is something the matter?" The nurse asked one in a more worried tone after seeing Chiaki's reaction to the statement. "N-no no! I just wish.....I could make him more proud...." She replied timidly and the nurse smiled and pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry, you've already made him more proud than he could ever be, now go out there and watch the match." She said and Chiaki cracked a small smile as she first put on the left sleeve of her shirt dress, covering up the purple bandages that covered her chest as she quickly buttoned it up and followed with the dress and doing the same. She grabbed her butterfly robe and katana and walked out of the room.
"Dark Shadow : Tsukuyomi!" Ikaku yelled from the battlefield as multiple versions of himself appeared, at a number of 5. Yes he had spawned more in his most previous battle yet he was watching the battle that Druvious had participated in and noticed he had dominated most of it, Chiaki only winning because of her intelligence and preparedness in the fight so he was well aware that Druvious was not one to go down easy and saw that it would be best if he used as little BioKi as possible. Now you are probably wondering what BioKi is. BioKi is the form of energy that courses through the bodies of the inhabitants of the Living Realm, also regarded as Positive Energy and/or Life Energy, this form of energy is the reservoir the user draws energy from to perform their Special Sword Skills. Some clans, such as the Hoshinomori and the Raserei clan, seem to have larger amounts than the average one, since it has been said that the average swordsman in the Hoshinomori clan has about 6 times more than that of an average swordsman of the same level from a different clan, and since the average swordsman has about 1000 BioKi-links, one would imagine how much the average Hoshinomori swordsman has. Even most young members of the clan have reserves larger than those of their peers while at the same time being lucky enough to surpass a few below average Swordsmen. The five clones now surrounded Druvious, moving in closer to perform the final step of the technique but he would not give them the satisfaction of doing so. The blade of his tanto glowed a purple color as he slashed the blade across the group of 5 to leave a whole trail of energy that gathered on its own to form multiple spheres of purple energy. "Blade Pistol : Gatling Gun!" Druvious yelled as he waved his tanto around, somehow manipulating the trajectory of the blasts. A few of them struck the shadows out of existence while the rest continued after Ikaku, attempting to strike him from peculiar positions but he was fast and perceptive enough to evade most of the attacks from the technique, until he saw none of them left, but large amounts of dust in the vicinity. Another ability that was common to most Swordsmen was the BioKi Sensing Technique. This was a sort of ability most are born with but it is on a more weakened state and so has to be honed to become a useful ability that can allow someone to sense up to 2 Kilometers in range. Using this ability, Ikaku navigated through the dust in the arena to meet his foe where he currently was, where he met a cunning trap set by the Raserei prodigy. There were over 15 remaining spheres of energy with some he had used to mask using the dust in order to see the trap."Let's try this again. Blade Pistol : Gatling Gun!" Druvious yelled as the spheres drove into Ikaku's body, an explosion occurring inside the dust, yet it was enough blow the dust away. Ikaku laid on the ground face first, his body looking as if it was trembling while Druvious looked upwards with a proud smile at his accomplishment. He had secured his position in the Finals. "The winner is Druvious Kai Raserei!!" The commentator announced and Druvious kneeled down on one knee, holding his hand out for Ikaku to take, which he did as he was lifted up, a show of respect between the two.
Once they were out of the ring, it was time for the next match. "The second matchup of the Semi-Finals is Shun Beifong VS Chiaki Hoshinomori!!" The commentator said and the crowd went wild, they were expecting to see the battle of their lives set in stone between fighters from such powerful and skilled clans. From either side of the arena entrances, both walked out to meet each other at the center of the arena, stopping at about 9 meters away from each other. From the clan leader stands, Ayato watched with a disgusted look upon his face at the battle commencing below. Grabbing the hilt of her katana, Chiaki had a sort of intimidated look but she was not going to go down easy, even at the hands of probably the best swordsman of their generation. The sound of her blade sliding out of it's sheath was heard from Chiaki with Shun who followed, holding his sword in his right hand. Chiaki gulped in fear for a moment, her katana shaking because of how she was trembling but she tightened the grip and charged forward towards her given opponent, her katana swinging from left to right in a horizontal fashion at his chest, hoping to somehow make the armour budge first before going in but she was not given the luxury of doing so because the golden boy had disappeared, appearing behind Chiaki who realized this at the last minute as she turned around to quickly block a strike to the back with Shun's sword that would have proved to be the end of her in this match and the tournament, but the force of the attack still proved too much for the Hoshinomori and sent her flying backwards into the wall. Chiaki landed on the wall, but with her feet apparently as she landed on the ground once more, charging towards Shun. She thrusted her blade towards his neck multiple times but he swiftly evaded, all while keeping a disgusted look on his face. He grabbed Chiaki's wrist, the one with the katana as he tightened his grip upon it which caused her to yelp at the stinging pain as she dropped her katana. From there he kicked her in the gut so hard that blood made it's way out of her mouth in the exact same moment as she was sent flying across the arena into the wall, but this time on her back, falling to the ground with a thud from there. Doing her best to get to a vertical base, Chiaki forced her body to fight on, she refused to lose here after making it this far in the tournament, she could not lose just yet.
Chiaki bashed her fist against the ground in frustration, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to fall and Shun saw this, causing him to scrunch up his nose in disgust. "What? Are you suprised you now find your head below your knees bowing to me in bitter defeat? Why? Your intelligence is inferior compared to mine. You lack the skill to compete with me and your physical statistics don't come close to mine so why is it? Why do you find it so frustrating, dare I say unbelievable that you're about to lose to me? I'll tell you why. It's because you're delusional, succumbing to childish notions that you're the hero, the one who will always prevail. But what now? Now that you realize that your own plot can't save you, you finally see yourself for just what you are, a loser not worth my time." Shun explained in a disgusted tone and such was the trigger. Tears streamed Chiaki's face at the statement he had made, it hurt because it was true. She thought that she actually had the chance at becoming the strongest swordsman in all of the Realms without even having the basic BioKi Sensing Technique! She was worthless, useless, she was truly a disappointment to the line of Hoshinomori that came before her; her grandfather, father, grandmother and mother. An image of her mother popped into her head, long ago when she was still young when she would teach him all that she knew about swordsmanship. She was the first to find out she had no Special Sword Skill and accepted her for what she was, what most thought was a defect. She continued training her and taught all she knew about swordsmanship, the only person who was actually in her corner throughout her life, but Ayato hated this. He did not want her wife to entertain the failure, the defect she had brought into the world, blaming her that Chiaki had no Special Sword Skill. This led to an arguement that led to Ayato shoving his fist through her chest out of anger and just like that, she had nobody, nobody who cared for her any longer. She was alone. The denial that was still inside her mind that everyone was on her side still remained with her, left to her by her mother. This was what made her move forward, what motivated her to go further than what she ever could. Chiaki stood up once again, glaring at Shun with her mouth bubbling with blood from his previous attack. She did her best to tackle him to the ground in her weakened state but she kicked in the face, followed by a punch that sent her staggers a few meters away. "Maybe I need to make myself more clear. Blade of the Lightning God : Surge Sabre!" Shun yelled as lightning channeled through his blade, the golden boy charging forward towards Chiaki, the weapon digging through her stomach and protruding from the other side. Lightning surged throughout Chiaki's body as she screamed in pain. "AAAAAAAAAH!!" Shun removed the blade and her body dropped to the ground, unconscious with third degree burns and many internal injuries. "Uh....the winner is Shun Beifong!!" The crowd went wild at such a display, but most still wondered why Chiaki had not used her Special Sword Skill. Shun was right, nobody was on Chiaki's side and she would never become a swordswoman without being gifted like him. That lesson was beat into her.