In a dark, gloomy forest, at a certain location of the continent, the weather seems to be full of chaos. The rain is falling to earth with a few times more weight than usual, along with the violent wind circling around covering a large area as though a hurricane were to be formed. The clouds are roaring, the thunder is crackling loud enough to affect someone's consciousness but, in an obstructive way. The forest doesn't seem to be so chaotic itself but the dark clouds make it hard to think so.
Under the terrifying lightning, two people with unknown origins are floating in the air.
"Brother!!" shouting the first one with desperation and a sign of extreme pain on his face.
The latter one is dragging him along with haste as lightning sparkles are appearing around his(L) body. The whole situation is unexpectedly blurry and slow as if someone played it in slow-motion. Their face is covered in shade.
The first one's sight is locked at one place, on a person, who just received a fatal blow of a sword from a humanoid shadow with unnatural properties. He is almost at the death's door because of the deep wound, yet he looked back and smiled pleasantly.
"Brother!!"(Scream)
Wakes up Tadashi Roshida, a man in his 60s but looks as young as a 40-year-old with his healthy body. He is the doctor of this native village, The Waterfall village under Kaizen city, and known as Mr. Roshida to everyone.
Somehow, Mr. Roshida seems to be in great panic. There are sweats all over his face. His dark pupils are showing signs of terror. What he just saw was nothing more than a nightmare. Yet, it made him tremble all the way down to the bones.
He puts his left hand on his head thinking of what he just saw, covering the left upper corner of the face along with the eye as well. Finally calming down, he gets up from the bed and heads for the washroom to freshen up.
Mr. Roshida puts some water in his face and looks at the mirror only to find himself something equally hilarious as it was strange.
Ink droplets, flowing down by his cheek from the silly drawings on his face. His light beard is catching some of it in the hopes of looking thicker.
He instantly realizes whose doing this was and calls out his name loudly in a higher wavelength, causing the birds nearby to flee.
"Zack!!"
***
It's another busy afternoon in the waterfall village. People are working as usual under the gentle sun of late autumn and it's almost lunchtime. The crowdie road is slowly returning to its empty self, following the everyday afternoon schedule.
In the crowdie road that is clearing up, someone is running indiscriminately, a woman precisely and a young one, pushing through the people in front of her. And behind her are three members of the local bandit AKA the Black Spiders with the fat one being the last.
She is frightened and desperately running through the streets as she is calling for help. But no one comes forward to do so because they didn't dare to offend the bandits.
One of the bandits is cursing the lady to surrender,
"Stop right there! You damn women! You won't get away from us!"
But it didn't stop her. She keeps running barefoot, eventually stumbles upon a box just around a turn, and falls on the ground. But gets up instantly and continues fleeing. Two of the bandits caught up right behind her. Taking a turn to the right, her face turns pale. It's a dead end.
Two of the bandits are blocking the only way out. The fat one finally catches up and starts huffing. They got her cornered.
Genzo, the big brother among these three is taking out a sharp knife as he is teasing her,
"C'mon, girl! Come to daddy!"
The other two are smirking, seem to be quite enjoying the situation.
"C'mon! Now, don't be shy!" [Genzo]
The woman is backing down step by step as Genzo is stepping forward.
He was about to touch her and at that moment, out of nowhere, a certain unknown individual takes entry from above, wearing a dark hooded cloak and an oblong-shaped light grey mask with happy curved eyes and light yellow stripes throughout half of the lower right corner.
He lands on Genzo's hand that he was trying to touch the lady with and poor Genzo screams out of pain.
A soft breeze passes through that blocked off Corner Street moving or rather shaking that person's cloak and the tip of his silver-white hair with it, presenting him as a savior of the moment.
"Three grown-up kids bullying a single weak woman?" he asks in a passionate yet mocking tone.
"You guys are really eager for a beating, aren't you?" adds he and kicks Genzo while he(G) was trying to get back up enduring his hand pain.
Genzo goes flying away back to the other two, resulting in him getting released from his pain in the hand in exchange for a bunch of other pains all over his body.
The other two got angry with his impression of them.
"What did you say, you damn punk!"
They both come forward to punch him. The fat one was obviously looking hilarious.
And then,
Bam! bam!
He beats both of them. They are seeing stars lying over each other.
The hero of the moment is standing still in his cloak with no expressions what-so-ever.
Genzo finally gets back on his feet. He drags the other two guys back with him but struggles because of the fat one.
"We will get you next time!" shouts Genzo, from miles away.
The guy in the cloak gives a dark grey cloth to that lady big enough to cover her body. Though she seemed a bit relieved, she couldn't completely overcome the shock.
"Thank you! Thank you very much, mister!" says the lady with a voice full of greatness.
"It's nothing, Miss! I just did what everyone would do… bu…t they didn't (flustered). Anyways let's change the topic! (says in an instance)Can you walk yourself home?" replies he awkwardly.
He notices tears in her eyes and totally freaks out.
"Why… why are you crying, Miku san?"
"No, no, no! I m not crying. I m just really grateful. Thank you again. (wipes tears) I think I can go on my own now."
"That's great! I'll be leaving then." He feels a bit embarrassed.
"Oh! And another thing, Its Kohaku san," adds the lady.
"Got it, Kohaku san! Be careful on your away home."
Saying that he jumps off to the roof and starts running over them.
On the run, He recalled something all of a sudden.
His face is turning pale as he is muttering himself while running,
"Crap! I forgot about my training schedule. I'm so dead today!!"
He reached home, a traditional Japanese-style house with a big backyard.
As soon as he enters the house trying to sneak in, a masculine figure punches him on his stomach before he could even react. It's Mr. Roshida.
"What time is it now?" he asks in a not too cold tone. "Wait a sec! You used Martial arts on the streets again, didn't you? You, problem child!"
"It's not like that, Old man. I just saw someone who needed help," Answers the masked guy while removing his mask and cloak.
Removing the covers, he reveals his oblong face adorned by his fair skin along with the steel-blue eyes brimming full of life. And the top layer of his naturally white hair –usually messy and leaning to the left covering his forehead– springs out of the hood of the cloak. All of that combined, he's got a pretty handsome face that is being kept on the top of a 181 cm tall and sound body.
This is Zack, Mr. Roshida's grandson and his only family here. He's 17 and pretty vigorous. But at the end of the day, he is just another useless kid who makes trouble for everyone
"And that hurts. Aw, aw, aw," adds he.
"So you are saying that you were wearing a cover because you knew beforehand that that person would need help?" Mr. Roshida asks again in a keen sense.
"e..e.. yes! You know I can do that," Zack answers in hesitation.
"Yea yea, as if I am a fool," replies Mr. Roshida.
"Whatever, it's not like you ever listen to me anyway. Just try not to use it as much. Remember, you're different," saying that, he leaves.
"I don't get half of what that old man says most of the time," mutters Zack to himself.
"Hold on grandpa, I m coming."
At the end of the conversation, they gather in the backyard for the training. It has plenty of space and a tree on the opposite side.
"Today's training will be a battle exercise," says Mr. Roshida.
"You sure you can handle that, old man?" Zack smiles.
"Hohoho, Am I getting threatened by a child? Let's begin and see, shall we?"
Zack and Mr.Roshida are standing facing each other, both in their training robe. The wind blows faster for a moment and it starts.
Zack closes the distance in an instance, jumps and kicks from the right (right jump spin hook kick) that was blocked by Mr.Roshida's left-hand blockade. He is unmoved but the impact affects the air creating a sudden surge of wind.
Zack instantly gets away and climbs the nearby tree at high speed. Mr.Roshida acts ignorant even though he is fully aware of what's happening.
Zack jumps down with a downward axe kick to his grandpa's shoulder, bearing greater force thanks to his speed along with gravity. Mr.Roshida again blocks it just by using his hand. The impact force pushed the air away from the impact point in such a way as though it were an explosion. However, the clean hit has pushed his feet a couple of centimeters down the ground.
"How is this for a child, Old man?" asks Zack from a distance.
"Too shabby, if u ask me," replies Mr.Roshida in a mocking tone.
"Well, let's see how long your old bones can keep up after I get serious."
Saying that, he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. As soon as Zack opens them, his pupils glow, giving off a vibe of concentration. He starts with the speed of the wind and is still accelerating. With confidence and seriousness along with such impressive speed, he approaches Mr.Roshida in the air from both sides to launch kicks targeting the neck (Left & right jump spin hook kick). He performs them in a flash, putting behind a decent amount of strength. But Mr.Roshida just stood and blocked them as if they were nothing.
Zack disappears* and instantly comes flying with a flying kick. Mr. Roshida dodges. Zack lands next to him, lifts his whole body on his right hand while sliding, and kicks him with both legs pushing himself in the air. Mr.Roshida blocks again. Zack uses that blockade as a foothold and jumps backward to make some distance between them.
Zack comes again at Grandpa with the same speed. He throws a straight punch with his right hand followed by an uppercut with the left. Grandpa stops them with ease. Then Zack again tries to attack him with his left hand straight to the face. But this time, Mr.Roshida catches the fist instead of blocking it.
He gazes at Zack at that moment with a cold eye.
Zack senses danger all of a sudden that prompted him to forcibly break free his fist from his grandpa's grip and jump backward. It created quite a bit of distance in-between.
"Hahaha, your senses are as sharp as ever!" Mr.Roshida giggles as he disappears.
"But not sharp enough," continues Mr.Roshida in a serious tone.
Appearing behind Zack, He attempts to hit him(z) with a palm strike right after saying those words.
Zack senses the danger; he could directly see the word "death" written in his grandpa's palm. It was already away faster than his reaction time but he could at least try to dodge as he sensed it before. Strangely, he couldn't even think of moving a muscle.
Mr.Roshida restrains his palm just before it was going to hit Zack. The wind pressure released from his palm imbalances Zack to fall on the ground.
He gets shocked because of the amount of danger he felt.
Since his childhood, Zack could sense any kind of danger that was going to fall upon him from before. It can be said as a special ability. The amount of danger he feels is equivalent to how much danger he's actually in.
"This is what it means to be serious in a battle," explains Mr.Roshida. "Don't hold back. Fight with the intent to kill when you are truly serious, even if are not trying to kill anyone. That's what makes the best out of you."
Zack takes every word of it to his heart.
Mr.Roshida turns back and orders Zack to continue, "Again!"
Zack stands up with a smile. The battle exercise continues.
***
In a room lighten with torches; a masculine shadow figure is sitting in a luxury chair. The light of the torches is highlighting all the ornaments he's wearing –Golden rings, nose pins, earrings– as well as the sinister smile on his face.