In a dark room, lit only candles its flame lit eerily Siegfried sat in the center of it, in a crossed-leg position. His eyes closed, deep in concentration. In a flashback, he remembered his time with his Master. In a grassy forested area surrounded by wilderness, a Cloaked Man and a small boy sat opposite and facing each other as the campfire was the source of light in the dim landscape, the sounds of the crackling fire, and the sounds of Mother Nature echoed through, owls hooted, the branches rustled, the bugs chirped, and fireflies lit up the dim area reminiscent of a starry night sky as they spoke in an unknown language. It sounded ancient yet advanced at the same time, "What's the point of living you say?" said the Cloaked Man, his voice deep, gruff, commanding yet gentle, he chuckled at the boy's question, "We're all going to die someday... then what is the point...?" as he softly said, then the Cloaked Man stood up, towering over the young lad and sat next to him and placed his large yet bandaged hand on his head, "Boy... Life is a very mysterious and very cruel concept, you say what's the point of it all if we're just going to the Great Beyond? I say: Live." The boy glanced upwards to the Cloaked Man, "Live?"
He nodded, "Yes, live." He sighed wistfully, "We live to enjoy the pleasures of Life, its hardships, its confusions, its challenges, its happiness, its sadness, its successes, its failures, and its frustrations." The Cloaked Man placed his hand on his hidden chin and thought for a second before saying, "Let's have an example: let us say you were reading a book. And you so happen to close the book abruptly, is that bad?" The boy thought for a second before shaking his head, "No, because I can always open the book and pick up where I left off or read the entire again." He placed his hand on the boy's head and chuckled, "Ah, but Life doesn't get to do that, because once you close your or someone else's book, you can't get it back and start over. Life is so precious and priceless because it's limited; your time in this realm is limited, no matter how many years you live be it centuries or millennia, or eons, eventually, Death will claim us and start Life anew in a perpetual cycle." The Cloaked Man chuckled sardonically, "As I say that Life is precious there are those who make it their sole purpose to harm others whether it be for good or evil, and thus nulling the value. What do we do again, to those who wrong innocents, boy?"
The young lad answered, "We hunt them down like the animals they are." And the man nodded in agreement, "Indeed."
And continued, "As such, we use that time to leave behind a memory or a legacy to make them remember us. Remember the life we lived, why we fought, who we are, and the noble ideals and visions of a future that we so gladly stained our hands for, whether willingly or not. So that it's all worth it in the end."
The boy sat in silence, slowly digesting the wisdom instilled in him, "I see... I understand now." The man chuckled mockingly, and spoke in German, "Liar. I know you are 'Special' amongst your human peers, but with your age? I doubt you'd understand it now, but remember those words, and someday you'll understand it." And patted the young boy's head tenderly.
Cut to the present day...
He sighed wistfully, (Where are you, Master...?)
And in front of him lies a black metallic pole, its length short about the size of his wrist, and behind him a worn-out training dummy, he took deep breaths and in and out rhythmically then muttering: "Psionic Suppressors, partial release..." Somehow in the dim room where he's in, a different kind of Darkness emerged. A Black Mist formed around his legs, it grew in size and slowly encroached on his body to his torso but as he was about to be engulfed by it, slowly he opened his eyes and they glowed menacingly, his left eye radiated a dim red-colored light, and on his right – light grey. Then melted into the shadows. The mist then dissipated and reappeared in another section of the room and on the corner of it he clung to the wall for a moment then leaped and in mid-air, as he resummoned the Black Mist, and when he was just about to hit the ground, he melted into the shadows once more and reappeared behind the training dummy's and in a split-second, he used his powers to retrieve his weapon as the Black Mist swallowed Death Sentence; Siegfried's weapon and reappeared into his hand. The staff is up to the length of his body and infused it with his Psionic Energy the staff then ignited a large scythe's blade and was about to slash through the training dummy's neck but halted halfway through.
The crimson energy blade hummed with power and hovered at its neck. And Siegfried chastised himself, and sighed exasperatingly, (Slow... too slow... Faster, I need to be faster...) he then relented and moved the energy blade away from the dummy's neck then carefully examined the focused crimson energy blade flowing outwards. The red ominous light of the blade illuminated his face, "Az'Nariahian Technology..." he grunted, (Ancient, yet far surpasses the modern tech both the Org and the Humans can come up with.) Then scoffed, (Albeit, requires Psionic Energy to operate. Yet, the strangest thing about Death Sentence is that he's not powered by an internal battery source—but rather external. Yes...) he gazed at the blade with a look of fascination, "I am my own power source."
Then he remembered his Master's words: "This weapon is but a focuser of one's Psionic Energy, a manifestation of the user's will, it reacts to the user's volition, as culmination of years of training and discipline focused into a one, single powerful blade. The more potent your raw Psionic Energy is, the denser and more powerful the blade will be."
He walked back to the center of the dark room, gripping Death Sentence tightly. He breathed in deeply before exhaling. Then he begins to swing his scythe in a magnificent display of proficiency with his weapon. He parried, feinted, and twirled it behind his back, then above his head.
As the metallic staff spun like a fan, the red energy blade become a whirling fan of light, its sound humming across the room briefly lighting up the dim area. After twirling the scythe, he began slashing in an upward arc, then brought the scythe down, scratching the floor with a thin line across it.
He then glanced at the training dummy, this time, with unsuppressed bloodlust, "Mind of Zhak'kurass, 5th form: Umbral Reflection." He then gripped his scythe and backed off, leaving behind a perfectly blackened clone of himself, and sprinted towards the training dummy behind the clone, the original has Black Mist formed around his body and blended into the shadows and disappeared then reappeared right in the back of the dummy, "Blade of Xecharius, 1st form: Thousand-Cuts...!" and he and his clone dashed through the training dummy, then knelt and deactivated his scythe, as if by cue behind him the training dummy was minced to a thousand pieces.
As the clone dissipated then the pile of cubed wood caught fire, due to the heat emanating from the energy blade. After burning for a few seconds, the pieces turned to ash and nothing remained. He breathed in deeply and exhaled and reactivated his Psionic Suppressors. Sweat dripped off his body, and began to pant steadily. After he caught his breath, he looked at the deactivated weapon.
He then looked at the clock hanging above the training ground, "5:30 AM..." then an idea popped into his head as he balled his fist, concentrated a bit of his true strength, and punched downward. The powerful air pressure from his punch snuffed out the distantly placed candles.
The time is 5:30 AM. As the sun is slowly rising, the sounds of birds chirping fills the morning, then the sounds of pounding footsteps echoed through the area, there a hooded figure wearing a grey jacket was running through the Tokyo suburban neighborhood, he breathed in and out rhythmically, and timed each step according to the moment he exhaled and inhaled.
As he ran, he heard running noises to his left and noticed a girl of average height that was also running beside him, she glanced at him for a split second before increasing her speed and gradually overtaking him. Siegfried, not one to back down from a challenge took up her contest of speed, Siegfried quickly caught up with her, and they raced through the neighborhood, the girl glanced at the tall hooded man and grinned confidently, (Heh, this Gaijin is pretty quick, huh?) She thought to herself and picked up the pace even more, as they ran Siegfried felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, it is apparent that he reached his limit, (Ngh! Limit reached...) As he was running beside the girl, he slowed and did a tight right turn, he then continued to run until arrived at the park, he momentarily stopped at the park's fountain to catch his breath, (This Suppressor... I can run further and faster than this. And that girl... was a lot faster than I originally thought.) He looked around and realized that he wasn't the only one at the park, it wasn't plenty but some are stretching or exercising, (How strange, there were more people there than usual.) He looked at the Park's Clock which displayed not only the time but the date as well, (April 29...?) then he realized, (Oh... It's Golden Week. A week of consecutive holidays in the Japanese Calendar.)
He took off his hood and decided to take a break by sitting at the fountain. The attire that Siegfried was wearing consists of grey jogging pants with black lines, brand-new black running shoes with red accents, and a dark-grey jacket with the words, 'Wir sind die Jäger' which translates to: 'We are the Hunters' imprinted on the back of it in white ink.
"Yo!" A voice said energetically, "Nice race earlier!" He looked up and saw the same girl who had a quick race with him earlier. She has average height, short spiky red hair, and eyes the color of crimson. The girl was panting heavily while having a cheeky grin, she was wearing a red jacket with white highlights and took it off, revealing a black sports bra with red lines that exposes her midriff and showed off her toned abs and skin-tight black spats that shows off her thighs, her running shoes is red and has blue accents, her skin slightly tanned and unblemished, her figure fit and athletic and her body is obviously very, very blessed with curves.
Siegfried braced himself for what he disliked the most: Social Interactions. He awkwardly said with a soft voice, "Hello...?" she smiled brightly and confidently, "It's quite rare ya know? To see other people exercise at this hour, especially a Gaijin, usually, they'd still be in bed sleeping!" Siegfried tilted his head in wonder, "That so...?" and a few awkward seconds went by, "Um... Who're you?" she had a look of realization, "Ah, crap, I forgot to introduce myself: the name's Takahashi Yue, it's nice to meet you, Gaijin-san!" She bowed politely and reached out her hand, and they shook hands, and Siegfried too bowed his head in acknowledgment, "Likewise, Takahashi-san..." and he paused for a moment before saying, "And it's not Gaijin-san..." She slightly giggled while she asked in a cheery tone, "Sorry, sorry, then what's your name?" Siegfried replied in fluent Japanese, "Siegfried, my name is Siegfried Silverstein."
And Yue wowed in amazement after witnessing his fluency in her native tongue, "Whoa! Sheesh, your Japanese is pretty good, huh?" he shrugged, "More or less..." Siegfried found himself staring at Yue's abs, and silently remarked, (Impressive, her figure is quite toned. How long is she in fitness...) then slapped himself to snap out of it, Yue was surprised at what just happened, and he apologized promptly, "Forgive me, I just slapped myself awake." She chuckled, "You're a weird one, Silverstein-san."
He stole a glance at her remarkably fit body, closed his eyes, and remarked, "You're quite toned, Takahashi-san." she looked at him and gave him a confident grin, "Ya think so? Heh, thanks!"
Once he caught his breath, he stood up and towered over her, and Yue's face slowly turned to genuine surprise that this foreigner shadowed over her, (H-He's huge!) she giddily said, "H-Holy crap, y-you're tall! How tall are ya?" he tilted his head, "Hmm? You and I were running side-by-side, you just... noticed?" she scratched her head embarrassingly, "Ehe. No, because I was too focused on running." He had his usual deadpan look, "The last time I measured my height it was around 192cm." Yue's face was of surprise once more, "192cm!? Oh man, that is tall." Then Yue abruptly looked at the time and cried, "Oh crap, look at the time! It's nice to make your acquaintance, Siegfried-san, I'll see you around!" she waved him goodbye before running off, as she was out of sight Siegfried remarked, (My, my, quite the outgoing-type she is. And quite the blessed physique for girls her age.) And Siegfried resumed his run to return home but as he ran.
Then, Siegfried returned home, panting heavily, sweat dripping off his body like raindrops as he was catching his breath on the house's doorstep. After he caught his breath, he opened the door his nose was greeted by the smell of freshly cooked sausages, when he entered the kitchen he saw Ivanna cooking, wearing a white sleeveless cotton dress shirt with a blue ribbon tied at the collar, with black thigh-highs, and a black medium-length skirt that reaches to her thighs and lastly an apron, "Ah, good morning, Ivanna." And when she heard his voice, she turned around and greeted back, "Ah, Mr. Siegfried, good morning to you as well."
"I appreciate you cooking for us, Ivanna." Siegfried said as he walked past her to get himself a drink, and Ivanna chuckled confidently, "No, no, it's the least I could do after all. You were not here, so I figured I'd make breakfast for all of us." she added, "It's high time that I pulled my own weight around here." He grunted in approval and drank a bottle of water.
He then washed his hands, "I'll help you make breakfast after I change my clothes." Then subsequently dried his hands with his pants and Ivanna handed him a fresh towel, "Thank you." And wiped his face and went to his bedroom, and as Ivanna was frying eggs and in the corner of her eye, she saw Siegfried taking off his shirt revealing his immensely toned body and was distracting her from her cooking and quickly snapping out of it as the sausages almost became overcooked. In her mind she chastised herself, (Ivanna what is the matter with you?! You already saw his sculpted physique at the Aquatic Park, did you not? But my goodness...) she looked at his bedroom door, (His physique...) swooned by Ivanna.
Then after breakfast, as everyone was satisfied with their meals, Siegfried was just finished cleaning things up in the kitchen and decided to take a break on the couch in the living room. He took off his apron, placed it on the coat rack, and sat on the couch. He sat there as his body sunk into the soft and comfy couch and groaned in pleasure. "Ahh... This feels nice." (Nothing more lethal than comfort...) He then noticed a saw hand mirror on the coffee table, "A hand mirror...?" he picked it up, examined it first, and saw there are intricate and gold designs that resembled a ram on the back, and he flipped it and saw his reflection, his eyebags not as deep as before, and saw his hair disheveled and messy. (Ah, oh look, an ugly piece of shit, who's trying his best to not outlive his usefulness and eventually be thrown away...) He sighed, (My hair looks complete dogshit.) And tried to fix his hairstyle with his fingers and as he was finger combing his hair, he grabbed a small portion of it and felt its texture and length, (How long was it since I last cut my hair? Suppose at the 2nd week of March, when Mr. Heinz toured me around Tokyo...)
Then Ivanna came into the living room and scanned the area, with a look of worry as if she was looking for something, "Oh... Where did I put it...?" Siegfried tilted his head quizzically and asked, "Are you searching for something, Ivanna?" She turned and saw Siegfried chilling on the couch with a cold and neutral expression peering into her eyes, she was caught off guard and lost her composure, "O-Oh, M-Mr. Siegfried! I didn't see you there." And had a nervous laugh, "Y-Yes, my hand mirror. It seemed I misplaced it. Have you seen it?" he looked down and raised his hand that was holding the mirror, "You mean this?" when he showed it to her, her worried looks melted into relief, "You found it!" he gave it to her, "Oh, I'm so glad..."
She explained, "You see, when I was cooking earlier, I tried to fix my haggard hair and accidentally left it here..." He nodded, "I see..." he grunted, "Do be careful about what you place here next time, Ivanna." She nodded and bowed and went back to her room, Siegfried noticed Ivanna's neat hair, silky, wavy, and glossy, and he stopped her, "Ivanna?" she turned, "Yes?" He asked her, "You seem to have considerable knowledge about haircare." And she tilted her head in question, "I do... But forgive my tone, but what about it?" He closed his eyes for a brief second before saying, "Can you help me in fixing this hair of mine?"
Her face lit up in excitement, and went to the edge of the couch and said, "C-Can I!?" she noticed her rude behavior and coughed, "Ahem, I mean, I can?" he nodded, he twirled his hair, "Anything will do, Ivanna." Her eyes twinkled like stars in excitement, and away she went to her room to fetch a comb. The scene then shifted, Ivanna and Siegfried were sitting on the couch with their legs crossed. Siegfried held Ivanna's hand mirror as Ivanna was close behind him, holding the comb, in her sense of excitement she didn't realize that her body was in contact with Siegfried.
Ivanna reached out her hand to touch Siegfried's hair but stopped herself, Siegfried noticed this and moved his head towards her hand, her hand now touching his head. She began to caress his head, and got a feel for his hair, (Wahhh! His hair is so smooth!) she remarked, "My, my, Siegfried your hair is quite smooth." He responded, "Really?" she nodded in agreement, "Yes, really! It's so soft and silky smooth." And she asked him, "What type of shampoo do you use? Do you use other hair products, such as conditioners?" Siegfried not knowing what she was talking about just shrugged and just said a reluctant yes, "Yes...? Maybe? I don't know..." She was surprised at what he said, "Y-You don't?!" he shook his head, "N-No..." and he followed up, "I just use products that have the word 'shampoo' on it."
"Ah. I see... M-May I start now?" asked Ivanna, he nodded, and placed the comb onto his head, and began combing it. "Mr. Siegfried I can't seem to move on from how ludicrously smooth your hair is." Again he shrugged, Ivanna noticed that his hair reached to his shoulders and suggested an idea, "Siegfried may I have permission to style your hair?" He glanced at her, "...? Style my hair?" she nodded excitedly and her eyes sparkled enthusiastically. Siegfried closed his eyes momentarily as if to think about her suggestion before reluctantly saying, "Very well."
He then noticed that Ivanna's position may not be comfortable for her as even when sitting on the couch her hands stretched all the way due to the significant height difference between the two. He gave a time-out gesture to his hands, "Hold on."
He stood up from the couch and sat on the floor, it was only this time that it dawned on her. (Ah. I was practically having skin-to-skin contact with Siegfried's body with my own. Oh, bollocks.)
"Better?" he asked, and Ivanna snapped out of it, "Y-Yes! Better." She resumed combing and first tidied up his hair, she combed it in a slicked-back style and held all of his hair into a ponytail then sectioned it into threes and began braiding it. "Are you braiding it?" Siegfried asked as she grunted affirmingly and she hands a small hair tie on her mouth, then after a short time of braiding it was finally done, Siegfried's hair was tied into a loose braid. He took a look at Ivanna's hand mirror and was genuinely impressed at her handiwork, as he nodded in approval, "It looks good, Ivanna. Thank you." And she happily blushed at his praise, "Oh, it was nothing really. Just a standard braid and all." Then Lily came into the room, "Nya? What are you two doing?" she saw Siegfried's loosely braided hair, "NYA! That looks so pretty! Can I try?! Can I try!?" and Mina arrived shortly as well, "Oh...? What's going on?" and saw Siegfried's hairdo as well, "Ooh... I want to try as well!" Soon, the girls took turns in styling Siegfried's hair but before that Mina was a bit shy to touch his hair before Siegfried encouraged her to do so, and they had a similar reaction to Ivanna when they first stroked his hair, Mina and Lily both thought the same thing at the same time, (It's so soft and smooth!) and spent the mid-day styling his hair.
But little did Siegfried know that the girl he encountered earlier will have a significant effect on both his vacation and life.
Current information bestowed for the public, provided by the Knights of Nights.
Subject: Monster-safe Hygiene Products.
"Since their re-introduction in Human Society, big hygiene companies have pushed their advertisement and campaigning in featuring several products in proving the improvement of a monster/non-human's fur, hair, scalp, and skin. Albeit research in the WHO and the FDA has approved that human hygiene products such as soaps, shampoos, conditioners, beauty bars/whitening soaps, and lotions are safe for monster usage although not allowed in certain monster species such as Lamias, Mermaids, and other scaled Non-Humans must use a Monster Doctor prescribed products and moisturizers."