[Later that night]
Duri was sitting up in his king sized bed eating potato chips, looking at the 80 inch TV on his wall, and on the TV, it showed a tournament. The "Raihu Tournament", consisting of 18 fighters.
Each fight that came on, Duri's attention was fully invested.
The crowds were going crazy, and the fighters were using their incredible powers and abilities to try and take each other down, and using different martial arts moves to punch and kick all over the place.
Duri thought, 'Marshy said the exams were going to be broadcasted. Well, the final part of the exams. I'm not used to being recorded while fighting. I guess that's some other shit I have to conquer.'
The TV went on a commercial break, but 80% of the commercials showed advertisements for the tournaments. Previewing famous and notorious tournament fighters, merchandise including tournament brand shirts, pants, socks, shoes, and everything else you can imagine.
Duri rolled his eyes, "Blah, blah, blah, get on with it!"
The commercials ended a few seconds later, and the tournament was back on.
There was already a winner, and that random winner was standing in the middle of the arena bloody and bruised, standing with a few Hosts. None of the Hosts were the seven strongest by the way.
One of the hosts handed the winner a golden orb, and the winner had a microphone in his hand, and he said, "Haha! Yes! I'd first like to thank my sister for training me! And I would like to thank the other fighters for giving me good fights. You guys will see me again, probably in the next tournament after I do another training period round. Yeah, haha, I train like everyone else! How the hell else are we supposed to get stronger besides winning tournaments and training? Once again, thank you!"
The crowd cheered, some booed, some were neutral.
The Host handed the winner the golden orb, and the winner took it. The orb was being absorbed by his body, a new power was being pulled into him.
Duri, still watching, stopped chewing, and leaned forward.
"So satisfying to watch."
[That same night]
[Osoi Jikan Bar]
Inside of the bar was almost empty, with only five people inside. They were either drinking softly, almost falling asleep, or looking depressed in chairs.
Xenon was among them.
He was drinking only water, and he was sitting at the booth.
The generic bartender man with brown hair came walking to Xenon, asking, "Want more water?"
Xenon answered, "No."
"..Got it."
Xenon looked down, and he was holding a ripped piece of a newspaper. The paper read: "Family of three killed by invaders with a combined power level of 10 million.."
There was a picture of the family, and Xenon put his hand on their picture.
'Fucking Reborn…'
Behind Xenon, a man with spiky grey hair, spikey grey beard, and greenish red eyes wearing a trench coat with his hood on, sat down next to Xenon. His name was Voel.
"That's not healthy, ya know."
Xenon answered, "Don't care old man."
"Whoo. Whoa, whoa. You called me here, remember?"
"Tch."
"So what does my son want from me this time?"
"I never ask your ass for anything. I just need…advice."
"You didn't even follow my first advice. Stop looking at the article of your family in that newspaper. It's just making you even more fucked up."
"Some habits we can't break easily, old man. That's what you taught me."
"Yeah, but I also said habits are not unbreakable. Like smoking and biting your dirty nails and shit like that."
"Very funny. I'd kill you if I wasn't so depressed."
"What did you want to ask me?"
"The rising star, Duri."
"Birthmark boy? Marshy's son?"
"Yes."
"What about him?"
"You know people who can find out his origins beyond him being from the Shadow realm and having hybrid blood. Do that for me. I'd highly appreciate it. Thank you. Goodnight."
"Slow down. The people I associated with before are no longer within reach. Everything will be revealed in due time. Why are you interested in finding out about Duri?"
"I'm gonna train him. My son was the same age as him when that incident with Reborn happened. My son acted just like Duri. Arrogant, angry, ready to fight, stubborn, and strong."
"Hoh? That's not like you. And Marshy might not even let you anywhere near him."
"She's aware that I'm thinking about it. Duri may be a stubborn little shit, but he's not useless. I only wanna do this just in case Reborn is actually revived. My son couldn't protect himself no matter how strong he was, because I cared about other things instead of training my own son. Was so caught up with trying to make his mother happy and be a Host at the same time."
"I see."
"My real question…the real reason I brought you here…do you think I should do it?"
"That's up to you. And based on your proposal, you sound ready and more focused now. Focused to the point where you wouldn't let an opportunity like this pass by."
"Mhmm. Okay. How's mom?"
"Ah. She's still sick, but she's doing better. The meds for her poison are helping, but it's slow. Sucks one with healer powers can't fully make her recover."
"I can't come by to visit tonight, but tell her I asked about her."
"Yeah, yeah, of course son. You still get along with the other 6 strongest hosts?"
"Nope. Still don't like those overpowered bloodhounds."
"Typical Xenon. How are YOU doing though?"
"...Fine. That's all there is to it."
Voel stared at Xenon for a few seconds with a worried face, then stood up, saying, "Welp, if you ever need anything, just call me. And make sure you bring your ass to see your mother."
"Yeah, yeah."
"And son…keep the ax with you at all times."
Voel rubbed Xenon on his head, and started walking out of the bar.
Xenon sat there for another couple of seconds, then took another gulp of his glass of water, then said to the bartender, "Oi..another round."
The ax Xenon holds is like Marshy and her Excalibur. Xenon's ax is inside of his own blood..
(10 minutes later)
(A few miles away)
[Bingo Hall]
Voel opened a set of double doors, and he was in what looked like a giant hotel lobby. It resembled it greatly. The light brown walls had nice paintings on them, and the floor was dark brown carpet, and the ceiling was like a picasso painting, covering the entire thing.
There were over 30 elderly men and women sitting in chairs at long tables, with bingo sheets in front of them.
Standing in the front of the room, calling out the bingo numbers, was a woman walking back and forth holding a clipboard with paper on it.
Voel walked forward, until he saw Mifu.
[*Mifu is Marshy's grandfather.*]
Mifu and Voel locked eyes, and they both grinned.
Voel yelled, "Bingo!"
All the other people looked at him, and Mifu got out of his chair, and walked over to Voel, and they both fist bumped.
Voel said, "Old man Mifu."
Mifu replied, "Oi, you're older than me by a few days."
"You've been saying that since 10th grade, idiot."
The woman who was calling out the bingo numbers said, "Well…yeah, Mifu has won once again. Great job."
The other bingo contestants were frustrated, adjusting their glasses and cleaning off their bingo boards, ready for the next match.
Mifu and Voel stood side to side with a grin, looking like they were prepared for a fight.
Mifu put his fist in the palm of his fist, "Let's win this thing."
Voel replied, "Haha! We'll kick their ass!"
(3 minutes later)
Voel and Mifu were leaning over the table sobbing, saying:
"We losssttt…"
"Noooo…"
"We weren't supposed to lose…!"
"We were on a winning streak…!"
The bingo night was over, and people were packing up, and they stayed to make conversations with each other.
Mifu asked Voel, "You went to see Xenon?"
Voel responded, "Yeah. He needed some fatherly advice. How's Marshy by the way?"
"That's good. And Marshy is doing fine. Her and the hosts are still trying to locate the leaders of Harvest and stop them. The random rampages are caused by Harvest giving random people or maybe even their followers a dosage of animal blood."
"Animal blood? That stuff is lethal.."
"It is. Depending on how much you consume."
"What about the missing headmaster and his wife?"
"That..is still unknown. Some Hosts have been investigating the headmaster's home and his wife's workplace, and then going back to her parents and his parents. It's a ton going on."
"Damn. You're saying all of this is connected with Reborn and his group called Harvest?"
"It is. The Hosts used me to look through the memories of a weak Harvest servant. Which affected my memory a ton, but I'm just glad I still remember the important things. I hope I remember if Reborn's son is alive or not…"
"Hmmm…do you know who I am?"
"Nope. Who the hell are you? And why are you even sitting beside me?"
"Stop."
"HAHAHA! PHEW! It's great to have a good laugh."
"YOU'REEEEE NOT FUNNY."
"Haha. But in all seriousness, if Reborn is somehow brought back, the war that happened years ago here on earth will be started again."
"Millions of people died, including Xenon's wife and children. If the war happens again, I'm not surprised hell will open up."
"You got that right. Oi…you feel that?"
"Yeah."
A man instantly bursted through the wall, and he had a black and purple aura coming off of his body. His face was pretty normal, but his eyes were pitch black, and he had six arms and two tails, and he had long teeth and long black hair with holes all over his body.
He yelled, "SATSUJIN!!!!"
The people in the room screamed, and the rampaging man was destroying everything with his 6 arms and tails, destroying the tables, the walls, the floor, and trying to kill the people.
The savage man looked over at the woman who was calling the bingo numbers out loud, and he began running to her.
The woman was screaming, and everyone else yelled:
"IT'S ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS!"
"HELP!"
"RUN!"
"WHERE'S MY BAG?! I NEED MY BAG!"
The man was getting near the woman, but Voel and Mifu got in the way, moving the woman out of harm's way.
Mifu and Voel pulled their fists back, and punched the man backwards, making him smash through multiple tables.
In the blink of an eye, Mifu was beside the man, and kicked him high into the air, almost touching the roof.
The rampaging man coughed up blood, and Voel was above the man.
Voel had white fire sparkling in his right fist, and Voel said, "Boo ya!"
He punched the rampaging man in the head, and he began darting downward to Mifu.
As the man was falling down towards Mifu, it turned his face to him, and shot his tongue out long ways at Mifu.
Mifu jumped up to the tongue, made a flaming sword in his hand, and spun through the tongue, ripping it to shreds.
Mifu kicked the side of the man's face with the heel of his foot, and the man almost crashed to the floor.
Mifu and Voel were running beside each other, Voel asked Mifu, "Are we gonna do our super awesome move?"
Mifu replied, "Yep! But let's tone down our strength! We still got civilians in here. Not everyone has powers."
"Yokai!"
The rampaging man was screaming, and Voel and Mifu appeared under him.
Both of their fists were glowing gold and white sparkling colors, and they punched the man in the stomach, sending him through the roof, and 60 feet into the sky.
Voel and Mifu cleaned themselves off, and everyone was looking at them.
"Tha-thank you," They said.
Voel said to Mifu, "So these rampagers are followers of Harvest? Not cool."
"I know right."
[Morning time]
[Outside of Marshy and Duri's mansion]
Duri was outside of the house near the sidewalk, holding his ribs in pain as he gritted his teeth.
Marshy was beside him, saying, "I told your ass to get rest. But nooo, you wanted to train and hurt yourself."
Duri grabbed Marshy's arm, "Whyyy the hell didn't you stop meee?"
"You'd still sneak to the training room and train at like 3 in the damn morning."
"Oww. This hurts like hell!"
"You look like you wanna take a fat shit."
"NOT helping."
Walking up behind Duri, was Kazuma, Ren-Ren, and Jiyu.
Kazuma said, "Oiiii! Duriiii!"