Eight years ago, a teenager changed the course of history not once but twice.
The first time was during a martial arts tournament known as the Purge where he interfered and saved the life of a warrior and took her place to fight. He emerged victorious and instead of accepting the prize money, he abolished the nonsense tournament to prevent more innocent blood being spilled.
The second time occurred on his 13th birthday where a blonde haired-man appeared at his school and took the students and teachers as hostages. That same man also easily defeated several formidable fighters and suppressed their powers via a collar. He demanded the teenager's appearance before the sunrise or he will kill the innocent one by one.
The teenager did appear but in a condition that shocked everyone including the blonde haired-man himself. The two of them then engaged in a fierce match and despite all the odds, the teenager claimed the victory by slaying the attacker with the help of a massive explosion that engulfed the two and destroyed half of the school.
Many people believed that the teenager perished alongside the fire, sacrificing himself to kill the blonde haired-man to save the innocent. Others believe that he survived but was captured by the accomplices of the attacker. Only a small number of people believed that he survived but, grievously wounded and gone into hiding to live a peaceful life.
That teenager was no other than Mikhail himself. When the mysterious woman called him by his birth name, everyone gawked and focused their attention on him as everyone knows well who Genji Mikazuki is and his impact on humanity. Some took their phones to take a picture or record a video of him and uploaded it to social media, gaining worldwide attention.
"Ah… So, it's true that you survived the battle against my father," the tall woman with long wavy brunette hair and crimson eyes spoke up. She then continued with a sly smirk, "How's your peaceful life going? Are you having fun hiding like a coward?"
At first, Mikhail didn't say anything. When he turned to his back to confirm the safety of Ammar and Camellia, he spoke up with calm but a small hint of anger in his voice, "Who are you?"
The stranger chuckled and discarded her cloak, revealing her identity as the girl who bumped into Mikhail earlier, surprising Mikhail once again. The enigmatic woman then covered her face with her right hand briefly before putting it down to show her real face which shocked Mikhail once more.
"Dayana?!"
The long wavy dark haired-woman chuckled and then said, "That will be my mother who I believe that you miss so much. My name is Damia and I am here to bring you back where you belong."
What stood before him was the child of a woman who he despised for what she did to him many years ago. Her uncanny resemblance to that woman triggered the dark memories that angered Mikhail, causing him to scream in anger before hurling the broken katana at Damia who knocked it away with her disfigured hand.
Those who knew Mikhail were surprised when they heard Mikhail's scream and witnessed him running towards her. The young man tried to land the first attack by throwing a hook that missed and received a devastating kick to his gut. Despite blocking the attack, Mikhail was knocked into a food stall and hissed in pain. He glanced at his bruised arms and slowly stood up.
"Darling, you need to try harder than that to land a hit on me," Damia adjusted her bangs and then gestured to Mikhail to approach her. "Let's see if you can land a single hit on me."
Gritting his teeth in anger, Mikhail ignored the overwhelming pain that he's experiencing and sprinted towards the smirking Damia. He threw a hook once again but this time he stopped and delivered a left hook at Damia who retaliated with a jab. Their fists collided against one another, creating a powerful shockwave that knocked the tables and chairs away.
The two then delivered spinning kicks which collided again followed by an uppercut. Taking several steps away from Damia, Mikhail took his fighting stance and began to throw several punches and kicks at Damia who effortlessly avoided all of them.
"!!"
Seeing an opening, Damia took it by throwing a strong punch to Mikhail's gut. This made the young man cough up blood and winced in pain as he fell to his knees while clutching his stomach. The daughter of Dayana laughed hysterically and punched Mikhail so hard that he fell to the ground. She then stomped on his head and sneered at him.
"How pathetic. I can't fathom how my foolish father could be defeated by you when you're just nothing but a pathetic, useless, weak boy who couldn't even save his friends," she pressed her foot further, threatening to crush her target's head. "Well, how about I play with you for a while?"
With a sly smirk, the enigmatic woman kicked Mikhail in the face, making him crash into a table. She looked at the struggling to stand up Mikhail and said, "Here's the deal. We can do this the easy way or the hard way."
"The easy way is for you to surrender yourself and crawl at me like a dog."
Wiping away the blood from the corner of his lips, Mikhail asked what's the hard way to which the daughter of Dayana responded by standing right in front of him with their faces an inch apart. Her speed shocked Mikhail to the point the young man took several steps away from her.
"The hard way? I'll humiliate you and make you watch how I easily slaughter these mortals one by one, starting with that girl," she pointed her finger at the terrified Camellia, angering Mikhail who responded by raising his left arm, revealing a glowing bracelet. "!!"
Immediately, two small shipping pods flew into the cafe just as Dayana sealed all the possible escape routes for the students via manifesting gigantic diamond spikes. Approaching the first pod, Mikhail touched it and the pod began to disintegrate into dust, revealing a hidden pair of large swords with dark silver blades and dark handles.
"How cute. Don't you want to use those divine eyes? Speaking of them, what happened to your other eye? Did you-"
Damia was interrupted by Mikhail who grabbed the swords and rushed at her with inhuman speed. He swung those blades at her, prompting her to block them by conjuring a pair of sickles made of blood-like liquid.
"You know, sweetheart, it's rude to interrupt someone-" Damia is surprised to find herself slowly being pushed away by Mikhail. "Tch!"
With her inhuman strength, the crimson eyed-woman knocked away Mikhail's weapons and attempted to stab him but he avoided the attack and grabbed the flying swords. Clutching his grip around the handles of his swords, Mikhail began to attack his opponent by spinning his swords wildly, resulting in the enigmatic woman to defend herself.
'Tch! Why do these kinds of beings exist in this world!?' Mikhail thought to himself as he slammed the surface of his blade to Damia's face, knocking her away. 'All I wanted was to live a peaceful and quiet life!'
Attaching the blades to one another via the hilts, Mikhail swung the large dual-bladed ambidextrous weapon as Damia recovered from the attack and manipulated the shape of her sickles to a pair of arm-cannons. She gave a smirk and fired hundreds of crystallized projectiles at Mikhail who cut them down one by one.
"Not bad for a coward," the tall woman glanced at the heavily panting Mikhail who hissed in pain due to several projectiles that managed to hit him. "You know, it's funny that my mother told me how powerful you are."
Falling to his knees, Mikhail began to cough up blood and glared angrily at his enemy who then continued, "Imagine how annoyed I am to listen to her nagging about how she wants to make you a perfect weapon."
"Are you done? You keep babbling like a noisy, malfunctioning washing machine and it hurts my ears, to be honest," Mikhail separated the blades and pointed one of them at her. "Trust me, Damia, you are not leaving this place alive."
Licking her crimson lips in excitement, Damia grinned madly and then said, "Well then, let's see which one of us is the strongest. Make your first move, sweetheart."
"Ladies first." Mikhail simply replied.
Knowing that the lives of the students within the cafe were in his hands and he's risking their lives by fighting Damia in this closed area, Mikhail decided to fight her and end the battle as soon as possible since the entire world already found out that he survived.
'And I know damn well that they're coming, especially that damn woman!'
Mikhail became alert when Damia mysteriously vanished and frantically looked around him, attempting to track down her location. He widened his lone eye and turned around just in time to block Damia's axe. They stared at one another before attacking each other with their respective weapons.
The tall woman dressed in dark sleeveless attire laughed crazily as she manipulated her axe into a whip-like blade and relentlessly attacked Mikhail who blocked all her attacks by separating his weapons. Despite receiving several slashes all over his body, Mikhail ignored the pain and patiently waited for the right moment.
"!!"
Blocking her thrust, Mikhail took this opportunity to thrust one of the blades into her chest but she quickly sidestepped, leaving a gash on her shoulder which was healed instantly. Mikhail then kicked the woman away with a front kick and threw one of the blades at her which she avoided. Suddenly, the blade began to make a loud buzzing sound that stunned the Demon momentarily before exploding, knocking the Demon away.
Before she could even fully recover, Mikhail appeared above her and slammed down the blade, aiming for her head but missing as Damia rolled away. She watched Mikhail try to swing his blade and quickly reacted by kicking him in the gut, knocking him away and separating the blade from him.
Reaching out for the second pod, Mikhail took out a pair of miniaturized railgun cannons that were attached to his hips. He jumped into the air and fired several shots at Damia. The child of Dayana then avoided the bullets and manifested a dagger to cut down the railgun cannons, forcing Mikhail to discard them as he landed on the ground.
"No more weapons or tricks eh?!" Damia said with a crazy grin as she threw a rapid barrage of punches at Mikhail who shielded himself with his bare arms."What's wrong, kid? Feeling tired already?"
"Can you just shut the hell up!?"
Avoiding the last punch, Mikhail leaned backward and threw a devastating punch across her face. He then sidestepped to land a vicious roundhouse kick to Damia's abdomen followed by five consecutive punches that ended with a jab.
Giggling at the pain, Damia licked her own blood and took her fighting stance, prompting Mikhail to do the same thing. She launched the attack first by throwing a left hook that missed, causing Mikhail to retaliate with a low-sweep kick that she avoided. Damia then threw two punches followed by an uppercut that Mikhail blocked with his forearm. The two then engaged in an intense hand-to-hand combat where neither attack landed on one another.
The young man with a lone eye threw a punch that Damia caught. Dayana's child tried to strike him in the face but was parried. The two fighters then jumped away to create distance between one another.
While witnessing the battle, several students began to cheer on Mikhail, causing the young man to look at them before focusing his sight on the smirking Damia.
"Look at them, cheering on someone who's going to lose. Just give it up, Genji. You can't defeat me, not in this state. It's impossible to defeat a perfect being." Damia said with a smirk as she crossed her arms.
Mikhail scoffed and clenched his fist tightly before saying, "A perfect being? That's funny, if I'm not mistaken, your father said the same thing to me and my father but what happened? He died."
The two of them stared at one another before running at each other and throwing a devastating punch. Their fists collided, creating a powerful gust of wind that nearly knocked everyone away.
"From here onward…" Damia gazed into Mikhail's lone eye.
"No holding back." Mikhail continued Damia's words, causing her to grin sadistically.