"You know you could have stopped a while ago."
"I gotta go twice as hard! ONE YEAR!" Galileo was incredibly exhausted and bored doing bunny hops next to Madara while carrying a huge boulder. Still, he wouldn't be the reason they didn't get new powers. This was the most determined he'd been in some time.
"Very well I can't shame you for getting stronger." Madara said casually "just don't over-do it. Remember you're wearing the magic weights too."
"(You really are Magnus' gramps.)"
"I must thank you Galileo for trying to stop me. I would have liked nothing more than to avenge my brother, but that would have solved nothing in this case."
"Don't sweat it…we all…" He dropped the boulder and sat down to catch his breath. "We all got our demons to deal with, sometimes just letting go is the best way to get your peace."
"Since when were you insightful?"
"It happens here and there."
"Hahahaha you are an interesting kid. It looks like we're here." Madara and Galileo stood on a hilltop overlooking a large bandit encampment. "Once again I must thank you for helping bring light to my heart, but I must also apologize for having to darken yours this way."
"What do you mean? I've seen bandit camps before. They're nothing special."
"They are much tamer near the capital, where the noble magic knights keep criminals in check, but out here in the slums even passed Magnus, or the other kingdoms reaches who maintains order? The evil people who plot in shadow reign like kings here. This is a place where chaos is the natural order."
"Now it just sounds like you're just trying to say cool stuff…definitely Magnus's gramps."
With a few simple signs, Madara turned Galileo into a random bandit. "Just go see for yourself then, I'll be waiting here. (Your views are still rather childlike on the true malice in the human heart. How will you handle it in person?)"
......….
"This is the place Irene said." The temp executive Mifune found himself in front of a large auction in the capital house carrying a large briefcase of money, to complete a task on behalf of the guild. His mission? Acquire a particularly rare item announced for sale today. The golden claw, a rumored key to untold riches and something Galileo had been actively searching for. It was going to be a SSS class mission if it didn't just suddenly pop up on the market. "(If I knew this was the kind of work I'd be doing today, I'd have gone with Tsuchigumo. No matter, a job is a job) I will acquire the golden claw."
"See!? Told ya this is the place where they're sellin that gold claw! And ya' tried to say I'm lost." Lover of all that is gold Bandit approached the building with Jude. Hearing Mifune say this was where the auction was held confirmed that this was the place he spent all morning looking for. "Let me hear it."
"Sorry for doubting your infinite wisdom boss…" Jude mumbled low and apathetically. "(I said it was on this street four times before…he just won't let anyone give him directions.)"
"Excuse me, you're here for the auction too?" Mifune asked.
"YUUUP! Gonna snag that golden claw! Gold that's gonna unlock more gold for me? What's better than that!"
"Interesting…(he's going to get in the way of my mission…)"
"Boss you probably shouldn't tell just anyone what you came to buy, he said he was after the claw too, didn't he?" Jude whispered to Bandit.
"(Ah shit he's right!) Well uhhh…we came early ta get good seats. We're going on ahead." Bandit tried to beat him to the building.
"As am I." Mifune rushed alongside him.
"(This kid is definitely going to be a problem…Not many people have gathered yet would it be ok to get rid of him?)" Mifune thought.
"(He's tryna take my gold! Maybe I should take him out while tha crowds still thin...)" Bandit thought.
Murderous tension built in between the two as they rushed up the building's steps. "(They're gonna fight…boss doesn't like being challenged and will try to intimidate him, but I hear the green-haired guy is some of Galileo's new top brass so he won't back down easily…then the claw will probably get destroyed in the battle…)" Sure enough they both reached for the door at the same time.
"Go for that claw ya die." Bandit glared at Mifune oozing killer intent.
"I was just going to say the same half-pint." Mifune's glare was just as deathly. "We still have a while til the auction begins."
"Perfect." That was all bandit said before his head was sent flying. Mifune was about to go inside when he noticed there was no blood, and the head broke down into sand. BOOM! The headless body bashed Mifune down the road, its hand reformed with sand into a flail. "Ya got some nerve punk!" The real bandit was on a nearby rooftop with his golden bow knocked and ready with a mana arrow. He released a huge volley of arrows.
Mifune calmly put one sword in his mouth and drew the other two, one in each hand. "(I'll try this style from the sword sect out.) Three sword style, black rope dragon twister!" With a fierce swing his swords he created a real tornado around him shredding his surroundings and the arrows coming at him.
"Maybe something with a little more weight huh?" The next arrow's head was much heavier, however, it brought no lack of speed Mifune nearly had his head blown off if he couldn't stop it with the sword in his mouth. The next arrows came faster and harder, but Mifune dodged them and charged.
"Two sword style: Climbing tower!" Two vertical slashes flew up the wall of Bandit's perch forcing him to leap away. In midair, a spiraling slash shaped almost like a bird flew at him. "One hundred and eight-pound phoenix!"
"Hahaha, nice try!" Bandit fired a shot of his own canceling the attack. They both landed on the ground and Mifune sheathed his swords. "What you giving up?"
"Quite the contrary, that was my first attempt using the three swords style against a decent opponent. I'll respect you by fighting in one of my own personal styles." Taking a simple two-handed stance with one sword held overhead.
"Hehe good. Keep half assin' if ya wanna lose ya li-"
Before he finished his sentence Mifune vanished from Bandit's senses entirely. "Vorpal style; execution" Bandit couldn't react but the sand did, creating a wall between them covering his backside. He still had to duck to keep his head. Rolling to the side Bandit avoided a horizontal slash that split the wall in two "Vorpal style: rend. Vorpal style-" Mifune's next attack was stopped when arms of sand started wrapping around his legs and climbing up his body.
"HAHAHAHAH! Got ya!" Bandit laughed maniacally unleashing another volley at the stuck Mifune.
"I won't be defeated by your lackluster attacks!" Mifune deflected the arrows that were going to hit him, but then the sand completely enveloped him.
"SAND COFFIN! SAND BUR-"
"VORPAL STYLE: TEN THOUSAND SEVERS!" A wave of sword intent loosened the sand and Mifune's blade reduced his coffin of sand into little dice-sized cubes. Mifune charged at Bandit again attacking extremely offensively, but his movements were sharp and calculated. Bandit could barely keep up, he was sure his old bow would've been split in two by now. One heavy slash sent bandit smashing into a wall. "Alright, time to end this" He started to run towards Bandit. "Vorpal style: Hero reaper" Mifune's blade glowed with sinister dark energy, the closer he got the more Bandit could feel his senses dulling.
"(Shit! I'm not supposed to lose! But he's so freaking strong...NO! I'm BOSS BANDIT I GOT THIS!)" Trying to pry himself from the crater in the wall.
"(If you'd shut up long enough, you'd hear my name boy.)" An old, tired, but proud voice spoke in Bandit's mind.
"(HUH who said that?)" Bandit was startled.)"
"(I am your zanpakuto, your 'tastes' have called out to me. Now speak my name and grow stronger!)"
"REIGN IN GOLD! MIDAS!" An extreme surge of spiritual energy exploded forth sending Mifune flying back. A bright gold light illuminated the area blinding everyone who hadn't been scared indoors yet. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" A streak of gold flew out at extreme speeds, and Mifune barely deflected it. Several more followed as Mifune drew a second sword to deflect more easily.
"Did he just get a new ability? A Shikai maybe? I was informed zanpakuto were all swords!" He immediately threw his swords down when he saw that the points of contact were spreading gold across his sword…and several meters around where they laid.
When the light cleared, Bandit had acquired a short golden cape and a pure golden crown on his head. Around his left wrist was a solid gold ring rotating like a magic circle, a large spire protrudes from the top and bottom making resemble a bow. Unlike Bandit's gold bow he simply had to point to fire his new weapon. "Hahaha, this is what you meant Magnus!" Bandit's mana arrows had become charged with gold energy vastly increasing their power.
"(I hate kids)" despite the fact he isn't much older "…I might as well put this to rest. Let me show you something interesting before you die " Mifune sheathes his third sword and draws the fourth slung over his shoulder. "Infinity sword technique…" The silhouette of hundreds of swords materialize around him "Onslaught of unlimited slashes!" With one swing. Blade energy dispersed in all directions and recentered on Bandit.
"Alright, Midas! Show me what you got! Golden discord!" An arrow with a fat round head was fired straight up before bursting into great spears that would attack the oncoming swords. Many attacks on both sides were able to land due to the sheer volume and chaos of their attacks, so they both sustained fair damage but Bandit a little more so. His new accessories and bow were starting to fade. "*Huff huff* you're tough as hell!"
"I'd say the same to you, but the golden claw is mine!"
"NO MINE!"
"I'm starting to think Magnus only recommends us idiots with weird constitutions…" Irene appeared between the two of them. "I sent you on a simple errand Mifune how did this happen!?" Gesturing around them were slashes, craters, and gold stains all over the street and buildings. "Dragon Tale is going to have to pay for all this to keep up public appearances now…."
Jude silently crept out of the auction house with the item in question a small solid god dragon's claw with several animals inscribed in the palm. He nodded towards Bandit to leave successfully but Irene noticed too.
"And where do you think you're going? I'll be taking that claw." Irene demanded.
"N-no it's ours!" Bandit protested.
"I suppose you did buy it first…but you started a fight to distract my representative, so playing fair is out of the question. We'll be taking that." With a tap of her staff on the ground, the stairs Jude stood on turned slippery and he slid all the way down to Irene's feet. "Thank you." Snatching the claw.
"HEY!" Bandit protested.
Irene simply looked at him briefly and let out her queenly disposition, something she hadn't used in ages. It was so refined and powerful that many thought a new monarch had come to challenge Clover. Just as suddenly as it started, it disappeared leaving Bandit, Jude, and Mifune speechless. "We got what we came for, let's go, Mifune."
"Ma'am (what kind of crazy monster is she?)" Mifune compared himself more to the executives than the fabled beasts but there was definitely more to them than met the eye. He followed behind curious when the right time to try Irene in combat would come.
"Oh and since you two went through so much trouble to get this. I'll let you come see what it unlocks when the time comes." Irene looked back at them before grabbing the briefcase and vanishing with Mifune."
"You ok boss?" Jude checked on Bandit.
"No- that piece o' shit won this one… at least they gotta pay for the damages." That made bandit feel a little better.
"Yeah but we paid for the claw…I estimate a similar loss."
"DAGNABBIT!" Bandit shouts.
"We should probably get out of here before the magic knights come."
"Right." He and Jude ducked off
...….
Joining Galileo, Madara walked up and simply asked "How was it?"
"I never want to see anything like that again…what they did to those poor women and children was just disgusting. That could've easily been any of my loved ones if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I-I blacked out…" All that was left of the encampment was a smoldering crater. "I don't even remember if those hostages made it out."
"I got them out myself (the ones with the will left to live anyways…the rest perished in your rage.) They're on their way towards Hodge with one of my clones."
"Oh that's a relief, I wouldn't sleep right if I had gone that far…" Galileo looked a little happier.
"There are injustices far worse than this across the world, so you're going to have to steel your nerves if you hope to go farther down this path you've chosen. To see the world freely is to take in its good and bad."
"I get it, Gramps. I'm gonna go mad if you start another lecture."
"You asked me to teach you remember? And it's Uncle…wait you're not even my descendant!"
"But your grandson and I are like brothers!"
"You both disappoint me so I guess it's ok," Madara said walking away.
"That's cold Madara!"