In the local hideout of the Black Spiders,
A middle-aged bald man is sitting in a luxury chair wearing fancy clothes. He is in quite a good shape with average height. All of the 10 fingers of his hands are occupied with gold rings. He's got piercings in his nose as well as ears that are being accompanied by golden nose pins & earrings. All of the golden ornaments that he is wearing along with the metal parts of his luxury chair are shining in the light of the fire torches in the wall.
This is the leader of the gang, Bunta Kikuchi.
Genzo along with the two other bandits from before are standing in a respectful manner in front of him in their beat-up state. Genzo has bandages in his right fist and some small bandages in several other places. The fat one has a cheek bandage and another one has his head banded.
Seeing how beat up they are, Bunta's pride hurts and he gets angry.
"In my terrain, which son of a bitch dares to touch my men!!!??" asks Bunta in anger.
"Boss! Some brat we don't know about meddled in our business," Genzo replies. "He had a weird mask on. Thus we couldn't see his face but we do have a suspect."
"Good! How dare he touch my men! Who the heck does that brat think he is?! I want every single piece of information there is about him," Orders Bunta angrily. His veins in the forehead can be seen clearly because of the inbound anger.
"People who messed with me never had a good end."
"Yes, boss! It will be done," the three of them reply at the same time.
Bunta gives off an evil smile, "Just you wait"
***
In Zack's residence,
It's already evening, the sun is setting.
Zack's sitting on the ground, sweating all over and breathing heavily. He seems exhausted.
"It's enough for today. Haha, you did better than I expected, kid," says Mr. Roshida with a smile as he is pleased with the result.
"Heh?! The old man calls me a kid whose bones are about to turn into dust. You should be more worried about your own age," replies Zack with an expression of superiority."
"Nah, I m not going anywhere before hitting the century, hahaha," Mr.Roshida gives off a smile full of confidence and pleasure.
"Anyways, Get freshen up. It was a tiring day," adds he.
"I can probably go another 3 or 4 rounds. But, if you say so, old man," Replies Zack.
Zack just entered his room finishing his dinner with a deep fatigue sigh. He falls on the bed like a sack of sand and starts snoring. It seems a bit weird but yes, he instantly fell asleep.
***
The dark sky of the night has turned crimson with blood. There's fire everywhere the eyes can reach. It was most possibly a battlefield. The lands are covered in dead bodies. Some are pierced, some are stabbed, some are smashed to the ground, some have been bitten off with only half of the body remaining, some are missing a limb or two, some are burned to crisp. There are pools of blood here and there, vaporizing in the fire making it harder to breathe. All of it looks more of a massacre than a battle. Calling the view terrible would be an understatement. On the edge of the horizon, under this crimson sky, inside those towering waves of flames, three heads of a dragon with necks as long as mountains rise with a roar loud enough to shake the ground.
Suddenly a familiar voice speaks out with its dying breath,
"Zack..! …. Run!"
Unable to handle the shock that he's standing in the middle of all this, Zack's breathing rate accelerates. At that moment, that Dragon looks at Zack with intense killing intent.
Zack jumps out of sleep with sweats. Like grandfather, like grandson. Zack just had a nightmare as well.
"What a weird dream!" he says with a sigh.
He gets up from the bed rubbing his eyes and heads for Mr. Roshida's Room.
"Old man! You up yet?" he says in a sleepy voice while approaching the room.
As he looks inside the room, Zack gets shocked. Mr. Roshida's bed is messy which he always keeps neat and there are bloodstains on the white blanket. There's even some blood spilled on the floor.
Zack gets the same feeling that he had in that dream, too shocked. It reminded him of the horrible scenes from the nightmare. He didn't know what to do. He quickly checks the other rooms but couldn't find Mr. Roshida. How scared he was of losing his granpa can be seen clearly in his face. He runs towards the main door with haste. All kinds of negative thoughts were appearing in his mind.
Opening the door, he bumps into a strong figure at the door who happens to be Mr. Roshida.
"What's the hurry, kiddo?"
Hearing his voice, Zack feels relieved. However, he instantly changes his face and starts yelling at him.
"Where the heck did you disappear to at this early in the morning, you old geezer!?"
"There was a medical emergency. I failed to save yet another life." Mr. Roshida's face shows some signs of disappointment that he was in himself.
"Well, you are a doctor, not a sorcerer. No one in this world can possibly save every single patient."
"I guess you are right about that. But…" Mr. Roshida pauses and smirks. "Well, well, well, look who's worried about me."
"Ha! Ha! Ha! Look who's trying to be funny. What's with all the blood in your room, anyway?"
"Blood? Oh, that! Actually what happened was…" Mr. Roshida smiles awkwardly
***
Mr. Roshida is sleeping in his bed, having some sweet dreams about his harem (which doesn't exist). He's having quite a good time. But then his sleep bubble pops. Someone calls his name really loud. As a result, he wakes up but not entirely. Trying to get up from this half-asleep state, Mr. Roshida rolls out of the bed, taking his blanket down with him and
"Crash!"
The glass container with red medical liquid that he brought in his room last night crashes to the floor in all this hustle. The liquid is scattered throughout the floor, also leaving stains on the blanket. He thinks of cleaning it up. However, the person down keeps calling. So he leaves.
"Turned out it was an emergency." Says Mr. Roshida [Back to the present]
"Hai, you are as hopeless as ever," says Zack in a 'pretending to be disappointed' tone.
"Hahaha, as hopeless as I might be, I'm still pretty strong you know." Mr. Roshida giggles.
"So don't get stressed over petty, useless things, kid. Now, go & get some rest."
Mr. Roshida enters his medical chamber.
***
"Rest my ass! Sending me to pick up his goods right after he told me to rest! Such a jerk he can be sometimes!" thinking Zack in an irritating mood while walking down the market road.
On the way, sitting in his small shop, Kuriya, a young man who owns a small stall and is Zack's friend calls him.
"Hey! Zack!"
"Hey man! What's up?"
"Just handling my stall as usual. What about you?" replies Kuriya.
"Same old same old, I guess." Zack Answers in a pretty casual way.
"Hahaha, figured you'd say so. By the way, have you heard about the upcoming tournament that will take place in Kaizen city? It's going to be epic."
"Upcoming tournament?" Zack wondered if he'd heard it before.
"Haven't heard about it yet, Guess I'll check that out later. Gotta go now, see ya." Adds he as he was about to leave.
"Okay, man! See ya," Kuriya bids farewell. "This guy, I'm sure he lives in a cave."
Zack reaches his destination after departing from Kuriya.
It's a small bar and a delivery shop. There's a sign over the entrance saying, "Baggins Bar"
He enters the bar, walks to the barkeeper.
"Hey, Mr. Baggins! How have you been?" Zack asks the barkeeper.
Mr. Baggins is a 186cm tall man in his 40's with comparatively darker skin. Even though he is only a barkeeper, his body looks like that of a bodybuilder.
"Fine as always, Zack," replies Mr. Baggins.
"No need for further formalities. Mr. Roshida's goods were already delivered last night. Just wait here, I'll bring the package right away,"
Mr. Baggins goes to the storeroom for the package.
A group of men sitting at a low-lying table close to Zack was gossiping about some tournament.
"I heard that the legacy students who were chosen this year are quite extraordinary. The winner this year will surely be unpredictable."
Another one adds, "Yah, hahaha. And I heard the outer participants are going to fight a giant ape. How cool it would have been if we were Majutsu vessels as well!" His eyes start sparkling just by thinking of that.
"Dream on! You can't even defeat a normal ape Hahaha!"
All of them burst out of laughter.
At that time, Zack interferes in their conversation.
Putting his left foot on the table, he leans on his knee with his elbow and asks,
"What's with all the Commotion? What tournament is everyone talking about lately?"
"Huh? Zack! You don't know about it?"
"Man! Do you live in a cave or something?" another one asks.
Thinking about how messed up his room is Zack doubted if it was any less than any cave.
"U can say so, I guess," he replies with a doubtful smile.
"So, what's all this about?"
"Ignore them. Just Check out that poster over there on the wall," says another man in a calm voice, sitting on the front desk of the bar.
Zack walks to the poster to see what's in it.
In a bit, Mr. Baggins returns.
"What are you doing there, kid? Come over here," says he.
"Here's the package. Take it with care."
"Thanks, Mr. Baggins. I'll be on my way then."
He takes the package and leaves.
On his way home, Zack gets lost in his thoughts.
"So 'Moonster Academy Martial Arts Tournament' is starting in two days. I could test out my strength and fighting skills there. Only if I could participate! But Grandpa won't let me."
He sighs in disappointment.
At that moment, a crazy Idea pops out in his mind.
"But,… What if grandpa doesn't even get to know about it in the first place? Hehehe" he silently gives off an evil smile.
***
It's already midnight. The streets have gone silent. As always, everyone in the village is in deep sleep by now. So is Mr. Roshida, as well as Zack. Well, at least, he was supposed to be.
Zack opens his eyes. The light of the full moon that is entering his room through the window reflects on Zack's eyes making it look like a jewel.
He gets up from his bed silently and starts packing his bag without making a single noise.
"Good thing today's training wasn't as tiring as yesterday," Zack thinks in his mind.
All the preparations are complete. He is good to go.
He leaves a letter in his room and starts tiptoeing through the corridor in order to sneak out of the house.
He made it to the door almost too smoothly. But then…
"Hey! Kid!"
A voice gets him off guard. Zack freezes on the spot.
Mr. Roshida caught him red-handedly.