Chapter 2: A Stranger From Another World?

【Oyama Dojo, The Following Day, 8:00 AM】

"Ugh..."

Nagi felt his consciousness return as his eyes twitched, if ever so lightly and his body squirmed. A warm sensation was covering his body, from his torso all the way down to his feet and the aching pains he had before were completely gone.

In one swift motion, his eyes shot wide open and he raised his body, checking his surroundings. He was currently lying down in a spacious room, with a number of antiques and furniture that you would find in a household that was strictly Japanese. His sights moved down and he saw a white blanket in between his legs that had no doubt been the warm sensation he had felt earlier.

Examining his body, he noticed several bandages that were placed around his stomach, shoulder, and even his forehead as he lightly touched them. Whoever had stitched him back up must have had some good training in first aid as his bandages held no discomfort.

"Just where am I..."

From what he last remembered before passing out, he was shrouded in complete darkness after he was absorbed by the black hole that appeared out of nowhere. Speaking of that black hole, just what the hell was it? Nagi who had seen more natural disasters in a week than most have in their lifetimes was baffled by the unexpected phenomenon.

He raised his fist and punched his face, wincing at the damage before a small grin formed. This wasn't a dream, good. Still hurt like hell though.

"At least I'm still alive. Only question now is where the hell am I..."

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard in front of him and the door slid open, revealing the figure of an unfamiliar man with brown hair and a well trimmed beard.

"Oh! Finally awake I see" a wide smile formed on the man's face as he walked towards the alert Nagi who seemed on edge at his appearance.

Nagi narrowed his eyes. "You are...?"

The man bent down so he was at eye level with Nagi and smirked.

"We'll save the introductions for later. How are you feeling?"

Nagi didn't seem to mind and only shrugged in response. "Could be better. You're the one that took care of my injuries?"

"I'm not well trained in first aid... but my wife taught me a thing or two..."

Though it was faint, Nagi was able to sense a deep sadness when the man had said those words but by the time Nagi had blinked, it was gone and made him wonder if it was even there in first place. Whatever, it wasn't any of his business.

"I see, I guess I owe you one." Nagi was still cautious of this man but at least judged it fine to give him his thanks. Besides, he couldn't be all bad if he had taken the time to patch him up, right?

"Don't worry about it. Though, I'd be grateful if you could compensate me for the damage you've done to my Garden" Takeshi pointed his finger outside of the door where Nagi's eyes followed.

What appeared before the man was a huge crater that had pushed away all forms of what one might call a "garden" and left it as a barren wasteland.

An awkward laugh escaped Nagi's mouth as he apparently bore witness to his handiwork.

"I... did that?"

Takeshi still held that familiar grin on his face. "You sure as hell did"

An innocent laugh came from Nagi as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head in an apologetic manner. "Haha, sorry about that. Guess I really must have had one hell of a landing"

Takeshi nodded in agreement. "Almost destroyed the entire house too"

Nagi was beginning to sweat bullets after hearing that and was thankful the damage wasn't as bad as he had feared. It wasn't as if he could help it though, he wasn't even sure where he was in the first place!

Having said that...

"You see the thing is... I don't have any money" The same innocent laugh came out again as Nagi had just basically admitted to being flat out broke in front of a man who's property he just damaged. Call it bravery or stupidity, Nagi had to come clean and just be honest.

Takeshi frowned, judging whether the man's words to hold any signs of deceit in them before he concluded that he was telling the truth. By the way this man was dressed when he came crashing down, he assumed that he probably wasn't of any noble background or possessed much wealth to begin with. Though, judging by his outstanding looks and impressive build, he clearly wasn't your average joe.

A sigh came from Takeshi at having to accept this man's subtle plea for an alternative. "I figured as much. Help me clean that mess up and I'll consider any debt between us paid. How's that sound?"

Nagi brightened at hearing the great news and nodded his head. "You've got a deal"

A few minutes later, Takeshi had already prepared breakfast for the two of them as they both sat on the edges of the main lobby, right in front of the crater. Takeshi turned to see Nagi wolfing down his rice and observed the man very closely. The injuries that he had recieved when Takeshi had found him lying in the crater were quite severe, what with him almost being covered in his own blood. However, what astonished Takeshi was that the wounds this man suffered had already closed themselves by the time that Takeshi had brought him inside of the house. From what Takeshi knew, Elements could be used to heal injuries to some extent but to go so far as to close up a near fatal wound? The man's recovery rate must have been otherworldly.

Aside from that, Takeshi had also made the assumption that this man was a martial artist of some kind, definitely a formidable one at that considering the scope of damage the crater had caused. Of course, Takeshi held his doubts about how powerful he was considering this stranger's slender but firmly toned build and ridiculously handsome face. Most pretty boy's he had met weren't anything notable in his opinion, like that Akaya brat who, while being an A ranked ability user, was not anything noteworthy. At least, from Takeshi's standards who was a renowned instructor of Tenbi Academy years prior.

Nagi, finally noticing the man's gaze stopped eating and narrowed his eyebrows. "The hell are you staring at?"

Takeshi, surprised by the boy's rather crude remark just waved an apologetic hand. "Nothing, I was just curious about your condition. You were in pretty bad shape when I found you"

Nagi didn't seem convinced that was all he was "analyzing" but decided it wasn't worth looking into and shrugged his shoulders.

"I was fighting a pretty tough bastard so I'm not surprised. I didn't go into that fight expecting an easy victory" Nagi was telling the truth. Zeto was a formidable opponent that even Jack Rakan, one of Nagi's closest friends and lifetime rival had praised. He still wasn't as strong as Nagi of course, according to his own twisted logic.

"I see, so you were engaged with someone before you landed here..." Takeshi saved that mental note of information as he tried to keep the questions going to learn more about the mysterious man. "So, where are you from?"

Nagi paused for a minute before cocking his head to the side. "I don't think I can answer that"

Takeshi was definitely interested now. "Huh? Why not?"

"I can't remember where I was born. I've traveled for so long that I can't seem to even recall where I grew up"

Takeshi was surprised to hear such a thing and wondered if it could have been an after effect of the landing that he had. Perhaps he had amnesia?

Before he could press on however, it was Nagi's turn to ask some questions.

"By the way, where exactly am I? This place feels a lot different from where I'm from..."

Seeing no reason to deny the man his question, Takeshi decided to answer him. "You're standing in the Oyama dojo"

Nagi raised an eyebrow. "Dojo?"

"Yup" Takeshi stood up and took the emptied plates of food back into the kitchen and returned to where he was sitting with Nagi. "I run this place"

Nagi still seemed confused by this statement as he looked around the area. "Shouldn't a dojo have students? I haven't seen anyone else here"

Takeshi merely shrugged. "A few students come by once in awhile, though most tend to get intimidated when they find out how difficult the training is here. I don't like to brag but some of the most talented element users were trained here."

Nagi snorted at Takeshi's smug looking face. "You could have fooled me"

A hardy laugh escaped Takeshi's mouth as he stroked his well trimmed beard. He didn't know why but he was somehow enjoying this man's company. He hadn't spoken to someone with such familiarity in quite a long time; most people he engaged with lately were far too formal with him out of respect for his stature. It was nice but he preferred conversations like this, not letting titles or family ties interfere.

"Speaking of which, I never caught your name" Nagi asked out of the blue, causing Takeshi to momentarily stop laughing and produce a soft smile.

"I'm Takeshi Oyama, the owner of this dojo. I'd like to know the name of the person who graciously destroyed my beautiful garden"

Nagi could only sneer at the sly way Takeshi had made him feel guilty about destroying his garden before he ran a hand through his spiky hair and laid on the ground with both his hands behind his head.

"It's Nagi"

Takeshi nodded, finding Nagi's name to be quite unique. "Well then Nagi, how'd you like to get started on rebuilding the place? You've got nothing else on your schedule I assume?"

Though he was looking at the sky, Nagi's attention was homed in on Takeshi and he stood up from where he was lying down.

"I suppose. Until I find out where I am and how I can get back, I've got time to spare"

"Alright, then let's get started"

Truthfully, Takeshi wasn't sure this man was actually going to be of much help since repairing the damage done by a freaking crater was no simple task, even when using elements. It'd take a few weeks at least to fill in the hole and get it back into the shape so his plan was just for him and Nagi to get started a little bit and wait for the construction team to take over.

The real purpose in having Nagi stay here and help him fix it was to ascertain Nagi's character. Takeshi was still very curious as to where Nagi had come from and how he ended up in his backyard the way he did but was careful enough to realize that asking too many questions might put him off. Nice and easy was the way he was going to go about things and he'd edge information out of him little by little.

At least, that was what he hoped would happen.

"Wha..."

Takeshi, with his mouth slightly wide open and eyes blinking in bewilderment, gawked at the newly constructed garden in front of him in utter confusion.

He had left Nagi in charge of starting to fill in the hole with cement and went into the warehouse to get some shovels. When he had returned, he had expected nothing to have changed save for maybe Nagi getting an early lead in and possibly moving a few rocks out of the way.

However, this wasn't what he had been expecting at all. It was as if the crater has never been there in the first place as he watched the blank faced Nagi stretch his arms and produce a bored yawn.

"Nagi... how did you do this?"

Nagi only shot him a confused a look and raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

Apparently, he had misunderstood what he was trying to say.

"Let me put it another way, how the hell did you fix the crater so fast!?"

As if his face was saying "Oh", Nagi merely shrugged and lazily raised his hand. "It was just some earth magic, no big deal. Even a dropout like me can do it"

"Earth... magic?" Takeshi was at a complete loss of words at the newly mentioned term that Nagi had just sprang on him. He hadn't used elements or a Maken, but magic? Since when did ability users classify the supernatural as magic?

Takeshi needed to confirm this. "Are you using a Maken?"

Nagi frowned. "The hell's that?"

Takeshi put a hand to his chin as he tried to piece things together. This was troubling to say the least as he never expected to meet a person who could utilize what Nagi called "magic". He assumed it was based on the same principle as using an element and exhibited similar properties. Still, what troubled him more was the fact that Nagi was not aware of what a Maken was, let alone an Element. To be any sort of martial artist in this world, one needed to have basic knowledge of using Elements.

Though, Takeshi wasn't one who could really talk as he didn't know crap about the fundamentals of Maken and just used pure martial arts to strengthen the physical body to the absolute limit.

"Are you not familiar with the terms Element and Maken, Nagi?" He needed more information.

"Never heard of those terms before in my life. Is that what you classify magic as over here?"

Takesh folded his arms. "No, we've never used the term magic in regards to Makens or Elements. I'm sure they mean the same thing but clearly, there's a noticeable difference"

Nagi was a bit perplexed at Takeshi's sudden barrage of questions and didn't understand what the terms "Maken" or "Elements" were supposed to mean. Being a dropout, Nagi was not that familiar with magic terminology but even he knew that these new terms were nowhere to be found in his world.

In his world.

World.

That word resounded in Nagi's head as he recalled the rip in the dimension of where he and Zeto had fought. Though he wasn't sure on how he survived at first, he was beginning to get an idea of what had really occurred and looked at Takeshi with a hardened expression.

"Oi, Takeshi. Call me crazy but... I think I might be come a different world"

Takeshi looked stunned by the statement before he erupted into his trademark laugh.

"Hah! Nice one there, Nagi. You almost had me fooled for a second"

Nagi's eyebrows twitched. "Does it look like I'm kidding, jackass?"

Takeshi abruptly stopped laughing when he noticed the annoyed look on Nagi's face and tried to contemplate his words as if he were speaking the truth.

"Wait... you're serious? You really expect me to believe that you're from another world?" Though he said that with scepticism, the idea wasn't completely farfetched to Takeshi. I mean, how else would you explain that strange occurrence that happened earlier? Not to mention his use of "magic" that didn't utilize a Maken or Elements?

Nagi merely shrugged and leaned his back of a nearby tree. "Well, I don't really care if you believe me or not. It makes the most sense to me anyway."

Takeshi wasn't sure how to respond to that but decided against speaking his concerns and focused more on his repaired garden.

"In any case, I really appreciate you fixing that crater. I expected the repairs to take at least a few weeks and you did it instantly"

"Earth magic isn't my specialty but a hole that size seemed easy enough to fix" Where Nagi came from, magic of that quality was hardly anything special and anyone who attended the Magic Academy and wasn't a complete novice could pull it off. Having said that, Nagi learned a few basic spells from several elements for convenience sake but found them to be absolutely worthless in a real fight. Who knew that such a basic spell could be used like this?

A glint of excitement filled Takeshi's eyes as he began to find himself more interested in Nagi's powers. "You said it isn't your specialty. That means you can use more of this magic other than moving the earth?"

Nagi smirked. "Of course. I've got a bundle of tricks up my sleeve, I'm just that great"

A sense of amusement filled Takeshi as he stared at the arrogant face of the young man who seemed to have quite an ego on him. The thought of seeing how good this man truly was had begun to take over Takeshi.

"If that's the case, what say you to a quick sparring session?"

Nagi's ears piqued up at that mention as he scanned Takeshi's face to see if he was serious or not.

"A sparring session...?"

Takeshi nodded. "I don't see why not. You fixing the crater has given us plenty of free time and I'll admit, I'm curious to see if that confidence you have is just hot air"

Nagi couldn't deny the irresistible urge to start fighting again, especially after his body had felt a bit sore when had woken up. Seeing no reason to object, he sported a wide grin and punched his palm.

"I'm down, where are we going to do this?"

Takeshi firmly nodded and turned around. "In here, the dojo is the place to settle all disputes"

Nagi followed Takeshi back into the main house of the dojo and they both stood away from each other on opposite sides.

"Excellent, now I'll be able to see what this so called magic is capable of. I should hold back against him since I don't want to beat him before he shows anything worthwhile"

As Takeshi was planning his move, Nagi was stretching his arms and cracking his neck to the side, eagerly awaiting the prospect of fighting again. His last match with Zeto had ended without a clear winner, though he was certain he would have kicked his ass in the end. This Takeshi seemed to be a decent enough fighter based on his outward appearance and the fact that he ran his own dojo. Nagi was thoroughly hoping for a good fight.

"Anything goes in this sparring session; the winner will be the one who concedes defeat. Does that sound alright?" Takeshi asked while he adopted an unfamiliar fighting stance.

Nagi yawned and nodded his head. "Sure, anytime you're ready"

Takeshi frowned as he noticed Nagi's lack of focus but smiled inwardly. He was expecting something like this, as he had fought many people before who had gotten inflated ego's because they were considered unbeatable from their hometown's. Takeshi couldn't count the number of poor souls that were thoroughly thrashed after he was through with them. Nagi may have been a unique person with his so called "magic", but he was going to be in for one hell of a surprise.

Of course, Takeshi had no way of knowing that the reality of the situation was far from what he could ever imagine.

"Begin!"

Takeshi dashed in with impressive speed, a testament to his vast years of experience and maneuvered around to Nagi's back. He smirked when he saw Nagi's unresponsive body stand still and assumed that he hadn't been able to react to him.

"Let's play with him for a bit to get him riled up!"

Takeshi was planning to sweep Nagi's legs from behind him and threw his leg out in order to do so. As his foot made contact with Nagi's feet, Takeshi's leg surprisingly phased through Nagi's body as if it wasn't even there.

"Wha!?" Stunned, Takeshi backed up for a bit when he noticed the image of Nagi's body become slightly transparent and then slowly fade away, as if it was an after image of sorts.

"What are you doing?"

Swiftly turning around, Takeshi saw Nagi standing behind him with both of his hands in his pockets and a confused look on his face, as if he was staring at an idiot.

"Y-You... how did you..." Takeshi was having a hard time understanding what just happened as he let out that confused choice of words.

"Quit holding back on me, I won't settle for anything less than your best, you hear me?"

Takeshi couldn't believe what he was hearing. Sure, he wasn't completely giving it his all but he definitely used a great amount of his speed in an attempt to embarrass the poor lad. His aim was to sweep him before he knew what had happened to show the marginal difference in ability so that he would get frustrated enough to show off his "magic". The fact that Nagi was not only able to see him coming but also move so quickly that he left an after image before someone of Takeshi's skill was able to notice meant...

An awkward chuckle came from Takeshi as he scratched the back of his head. "You must forgive me, I seemed to have underestimated you quite a bit"

Nagi inclined his head before smirking. "No biggie. Though, it is quite a change of pace to be underestimated for once. From where I come from, everyone comes at me with the full intent to kill because of my reputation."

"...Is that right..."

Takeshi made his way back to his original spot and took a deep breath, allowing his body to loosen and his concentration to reach its peak. Holding back against this incredible man was a foolish move and he now decided to meet him with his best.

Nagi immediately noticed the change in the man's attitude and grinned. It seemed like he was finally going to take this seriously.

"Now that's what I'm talking about" Nagi now removed his hands from his pockets and straightened up, now hoping a good match. He wasn't used to this sparring thing so he was expecting quite a lot from the old man. He also needed to know the standard of strength of those that lived in this world.

A brief silence enveloped the room as the two combatants glared at one another, waiting for the other to make the first move. The silence was then drowned out by the sound of a bird chirping and it landed outside on a nearby tree.

"Go...!"

Takeshi shot himself forward towards Nagi who remained stationary like before. However, in one swift motion he squinted his body and headed straight for Takeshi.

A cold sweat ran down Takeshi's spine as he bore witness to the man's incredible speed who was able to close the gap between them in a second. Even still, a wide grin formed on his face at being fortunate to meet a man as skilled as this."A head on clash is it!?"

Takeshi thrust out several punches towards Nagi with such blinding speed that it appeared that he had several arms. Nagi parried each of them easily enough before he threw some of his own towards the somewhat startled Takeshi. Grunting, Takeshi blocked every punch Nagi threw at him but winced each time his hand made contact with Nagi's as he felt the incredible power the man held with each punch. His arms were starting to get numb as Nagi continued his flurry of punches that Takeshi was barely keeping up with until Takeshi stopped blacking and disappeared from Nagi's sights.

Nagi withdrew his arms and stood still, his eyes glancing in several directions of the room. Truth be told, Nagi could easily follow Takeshi's movements and what looked incredibly fast to an outside party was pitifully slow towards the red haired magician.

"Is that really all he's got?" Nagi inwardly frowned at the lack of impressive showing by Takeshi who he assumed was still holding back. Here he was expecting a good fight and the old man was still underestimating him. How annoying, Nagi thought.

Takeshi had appeared on top of Nagi and threw a punch towards the man but was taken back when he saw Nagi already moving out of the way. Takeshi spun himself and landed on the ground with both feet before moving towards Nagi once again, this time planning on blasting him with a powerful frontal jab.

"Hoho... you want to face me in a head on clash? Let's see what you got" Nagi was intrigued and dashed forward towards Takeshi, drawing his arm back to increase the maximum output of his jab.

Nagi and Takeshi were only inches apart before they launched their fists forward and clashed with one another, the impact of their confrontation generating a fierce wind and shaking the dojo to its core.

However, it was clearly a mismatch as one of the combatants was completely blown away from the clash and smashed right through one of the walls of the compound.

"Agh!?" Takeshi's body ended up roughly rolling through the house and finally came to a stop when he landed against the stairs right outside of the hallway. He was in a state of utter confusion as he couldn't grasp what just happened and looked at his now broken hand that had bruises all over it.

"What kind of freak of nature is he..."

Takeshi had confronted more than his fair share of powerful enemies in his day but he had never met a person who could overwhelm him in both speed and physical power so effortlessly. Even Minori, who Takeshi believed to be one of the strongest element users when it came to pure physical combat couldn't do what Nagi just did against him. If she used her Maken, Dragon Ace then it may have been possible but regardless, Nagi's superior skill was undeniable.

And the scariest thing about it was...

"Oi! You still alive out there, old man?" Nagi's voice rang out from hole in the wall as he appeared in front of Takeshi who produced a wry smile at the man, no the beast standing in front of him.

"He doesn't even look like he was trying..." The idea of Nagi holding back a significant portion of his strength and still being able to do what he just did was a terrifying thought. From what it looked like, he didn't even use his "magic" as well!

Nagi squatted down to meet with Takeshi at eye level and put on sheepish smile.

"Sorry about that, if I knew you were that weak I would have held back more"

An annoyed grunt came from Takeshi at being called "weak" as he stood up and dusted his clothes.

"I'm not weak; your just a damn monster. Jeez, I'm starting to believe you might really come from another world with strength like that"

Nagi cocked his head to the side in confusion. "Is that level of strength not common around here?" Nagi was starting to feel disappointed that there wouldn't be anyone in this world that was worth fighting. I mean, he didn't even use any magic to strengthen his body which was a staple for all magicians. This old man was clearly someone who was far below him if he couldn't even compete with him when he wasn't even trying. Seriously, what a let down.

Takeshi shook his head. "If we're talking about pure destructive power, then of course what you showed me isn't that uncommon. However, I doubt you'll find many people who could do what you did without even using elements to increase their strength"

The term "elements" continued to be a foreign concept to the mentally slow Nagi but he assumed that just how magic in his world could be used to amplify strength and speed, elements could have the same effect.

Nagi sighed. "Well that's a shame, I was hoping to find someone here that I could go all out against"

A light bulb seemed to go off in Takeshi's head at that mention before he threw an arm over Nagi's shoulders, an act that confused the red haired man.

"That's it!" He beamed happily.

Nagi raised an eyebrow at Takeshi's newfound vitality. "What's it?"

Takeshi grinned. "I'm taking you to Tenbi Academy!"

Chapter 2 Done, hope you all enjoyed it!