Once upon a time, there was a woman that a man loved very much.
She had no name, no face, no smell, no clothes she liked to wear, no nothing. Utterly devoid of everything, she eventually faded from the mans memory.
**
Xander was sitting on top of one of the weaponized androids which he had since destroyed. He was staring up at the full moon while enjoying another cigarette, as he took in the view of hundreds of destroyed Unison council androids and artillery.
"Gee, their technology is really getting good! I'm going to find myself beat in the next ten years or so at this rate."
One of the broken machine gun turrets which was behind him at a distance, suddenly began to flash back to life. It aimed the muzzle of its partially destroyed barrel before it was quickly destroyed by a blast of Aether.
Xander didn't even need to look at it.
He slowly took out the the cigarette in his mouth before huffing a puff of smoke, causing a deep sensation of relief to course through his body. But that relief quickly disappeared as he felt a presence quickly approaching him.
Immediately jumping up, he put his mask back on when someone familiar stepped out of the shadows.
It was a man who seemed to be in his early 40's much like Xander himself. He had green hair with slight hair growth on his chin which he frequently scratched. He was also wearing half of a green kimono, with a sheathed katana strapped on his sash.
With just a glance, Xander could tell his opponent was strong.
"The Idle Swordsman. I'm surprised you turned up here of all places, especially with how you usually act."
Returners, Borrowers who used their powers to do good on behalf on the Unison council. They weren't under their direct Authority, however they were still managed and legalized by them to make sure some don't step out of line.
When it came to the strongest amongst them in the Returner battles, only the top 100 were given a rank. And even then, they were given titles to help them stand out even more by the public.
The title granted to Toru was.. 'The Idle Swordsman'. Known for always being on the brink of exhaustion, and handing down any left over work to his teammates when possible.
"We'll ya know, a man's gotta work. There's still a bare minimum I need to put in, and it just so happened to be here. So would you mind sparing me some trouble and hand yourself in? I can already tell your going to be a pain to deal with."
Just as how Xander recognised how strong Toru was, Toru could already make out Xander's strength. It was roughly equal to his, but nevertheless he was still sure he could catch an easy win if he put out for just a bit.
And with that, the two had finally finished measuring each other up, and took their following fighting stances.
Xander's was although unnoticeable, it was fierce with the perfect defence and was ready to counter attack from any angle, almost like a tiger. The idle swordsman on the other hand, took a simply drawing stance which was full of holes.
This was on purpose of course, as an experienced fighter would target those holes, letting Toru predict where they would strike before hand. Although if he was too lazy.. he would also be put in danger.
Toru immediately drew his sword, and performed a horizontal slash in the air. A massive wave of green Aether in the shape of a cut flew at Xander, which he deflected by carefully slapping its side with the palm of his hand.
It was surprising. In just that one interaction, Toru could tell Xander was an experienced martial artist. Quick and powerful, yet there was one way which Toru knew he could beat him with.
'I'll use flow control and tear his limbs off even faster then he can move. First, I ought to wait for him to get close.'
Xander immediately started dashing towards Toru, while Toru just threw another 2 Aether slashes at him.
Xander leapt over one and slapped the other away, the same way which he had done with the first, but then Toru quickly ran in front of him with surprising speed. Rather than waiting for Xander to reach him, he got close as well.
After only a second, the two were now in direct confrontation with each other. They both then commanded,
'Flow control!'
Flow control was the power to dominate Aether in the atmosphere, but through a special method, it can also be used to deflect and guide attacks with ease. This was the core of Toru's 'flow control: flowing sword' which was a common technique amongst weapon wielding Borrowers.
In the scenario where two opponents use Flow control however, there is only a limited amount of Aether that both can dominate. This means that the one with the greater flow control, will inevitably be able to use it while the other remains vulnerable.
'He used it too? Surprising, but that just means I'll have to win!', Toru thought.
A blue circle made of Aether slowly expanded from the both of them, with each user at its centre. As the circles quickly grew, they bumped into each other before merging into one giant circle. The one who could control this area, would be the ultimate winner. Yet for some reason...
The circle began to show visible cracks, before shattering into a million shining blue pieces.
The result? They were evenly matched. Neither could maintain control over the other, and thus their techniques cancelled each other out.
Unfortunately for Toru however, Xander had already known this before hand, and so he had a counter attack ready.
Mere moments after the Flow control shattered, Xander immediately smashed his fist into Toru's right abdomen, critically wounding him. He shouted out in pain as he vertically slashed his sword, while also launching out another slash of green Aether.
But Xander quickly backed away before the attack could hit him, creating distance between the two.
'Hey, hey! What the heck? Even if we we're even, he shouldn't have been able to move that quickly! This guy is going to be a problem... maybe I should just retreat?'
He took a light step back, but then he suddenly remembered a conversation he had with Toru, his partner.
Toru was napping peacefully on a roof top when Genma suddenly teleported behind him. He sighed, before quickly kicking the man, jolting him awake.
"Hey Toru! If you start slacking off, you'll have your license removed ya know?"
He just yawned as he responded, "They can't remove me? I'm ranked 65! Besides, even if I do get kicked, I guess I can just be employed as a mercenary in some random country..."
With an angry expression, Genma kicked him again.
"Hey! What gives!?"
"Are you stupid? Or did you not read the license agreement you signed? If you get your license removed rather than retiring gracefully, you'll be forced to undergo the impalement surgery, otherwise you'll be branded as a wanted criminal!"
At the end of the day, the Miracle was just another organ. The impalement surgery is used to remove the Miracle from a Borrowers body, which can then be stored for safe keeping, or be transferred to a new host. A borrower can of course grow a new one, but special drugs existed that can prevent this.
This was a deterrent to prevent powerful Returners from misbehaving, especially the top 100.
Suddenly Toru quickly jumped up, alarmed by that news.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?? I better get to work right away!"
**
As Toru looked at Xander's mask, he tried his best to intimidate him. But his sorry state really prevented him from looking tough. The attack he received had partially shattered his right rib cage.
'I really don't want to go through that... I guess I'll have to try after all.'
Xander suddenly tried to converse with Toru without ever relaxing his guard. In fact, one could say he grew more serious.
"If you got sent here, then you must know about the mysteries of that city? Would you mind indulging me about it?"
Xander was abnormally quiet. At first, Xander thought he was about to attack, but surprisingly he responded with an answer.
"Gehenna city, it's a necessary evil. Babel exists in a deadly balance despite what it may seem. Although no one sees it, there is another much more dangerous group other then the Black Bone gang hidden deeply in Babel. Gehenna city is a mask to hide that evil. Without the mask, the true face is revealed, and then... only chaos will remain."
Gehenna city was a cover up for a much worse group of people. If the public knew about them, then Babel's image as the worlds symbol of hope would shatter. Instead it would be seen as the origin of it's greatest evil, and the humans in fear of them, would wage war once again.
A war as terrible as the flickering war would ensue, and this time the world would end.
Gehenna city was a trash dump to not just throw away the homeless, but witnesses and the nosey people who got far too deep into the conspiracy. Yet Xander felt something was off... something was missing.
"I didn't expect you to tell me so easily.. what gives?"
"Ha! You know me already! Keeping secrets is more of a chore then hiding them in the long run. I'm going to kill you anyway, so why not waste some time?"
"Even if that was true, why a camp? It would be much easier to just kill them all, no?"
Toru went quiet. Then he replied,
"I don't know. This is just the way it is. Maybe they're keeping stuff from me? But who am I to Judge. If things stay like this, the world will remain functional. That alone is enough."
Toru then took another stance, this time with much more effort behind it. All of the holes he purposefully left open were sealed, but at the same time he left no room for him to throw an accurate attack. It was a style akin to a turtle hiding in its shell, leaving no way for others to hurt it, while also being unable to fight back.
And yet, he was confident he could still win as he uttered the words,
"Ideal Release!"