His feet slowly tapped on the tarmac as he walked through the deserted road, back in the direction of his house. On his back, a black and white school bag was hung and he wore a navy Gakuran coupled with navy pants and a small insignia was on his left chest- a blooming cherry blossom in front of a kite shield base with several thorny vines creeping around the edges; the insignia of the Sakurasen Primary School*, the school that was renowned for its excellent education and has received many wonderful reviews from parents. His hair was spiked and angled to the left, and on his right wrist, he wore a black watched trimmed with orange. This boy was Samuel Blackburn six years ago, back when he was only a normal, young student who knew nothing of the outside world.
Or so it seemed.
There was no sun in the sky anymore, but the roadside lamps lit the way for him as he walked through the now deserted road, and he knew that the time had been the cause of all this. At six in the evening, it's rare to see a man walking up and down this particular area, let alone all by himself for fear of the gangs that infest this part of the city, and yet, this boy continued on his way, confidently striding forward without thinking of the dangers that may befall him. He reached back around his neck and pulled on a couple of earphones, fishing a small phone out of his pocket and setting a song on.
"Ahh dammit, that took way longer than expected…" he said to himself. "Oh well, better hurry it up…"
Having just completed his punishment of cleaning up his classroom by himself, Sam, who'd cross this area every morning and afternoon on his way to and from school, knew that this area, in particular, this street, was infested with thugs and night-gangs, especially during the evening. But this was the only route that he could take to reach his house, and sooner or later, he knew that he'd run into trouble with the 'Spiders', just as he had with any other gang around. Thinking this, he lightly touched the pendant with the distress beacon on it. Apart from the intense training his uncle had made him go through since he was 3, his uncle had given the pendant to him just a year ago and he'd been told that it would directly alert the nearest station of suspicious activity and that officers would come around in minutes, but he'd hope that he wouldn't need to use it.
"Hey kid," a gruff voice said from behind.
He stopped and cocked his head back, looking at the adult male wearing what had been a white sleeveless top but was now ripped in places and clearly showing results of wear and tear and on his shoulder was the tattoo of a black spider. The man wore a pair of blue jeans, ripped on the knees with evidence of heavy wear and in his hand, he held a long, thick machete, its blade polished to a good shine.
"Hand over all your money."
"Huh. As if," Sam said as he slid his right feet back, angling his body into that of a fighting stance, raising his hands before him as he prepared to fight. "A member of the 'Spiders' huh… Who'd have thought that I'd get to see one today?"
Provoking the man, Sam clenched his fists and prepared himself as the man rushed towards him, swinging the machete down at his head. He sidestepped the man and grabbed his wrist, twisting his body and positioning himself for a shoulder throw, using the forward momentum to fling the man over his shoulder and putting him into a lock upon landing even as the impact knocked the man's breath out of his lungs. The machete clattered onto the floor as the man struggled, unable to scream from the shock and pain right before Sam knocked him out cold with a quick, hard chop to the neck, standing up and preparing to leave the area.
But others had already reached him.
Looking around, he saw no one but heard the sound of approaching feet, and knowing that more enemies had come, he bent down and picked up the machete, holding it in a forward grip similar to a single handed sword. It wasn't long before figures appeared from the smaller alleyways of the street, each of them sporting some kind of close combat weapon, from knives to bats and even swords, each of them proudly showing off their black spider tattoo.
"You took him down eh, kid?" One of the gruff men spoke, the one holding a traditional katana in his right hand. "But think you can take us all?"
Raising the knife and shifting his right feet back, Sam prepared himself for the fight for his life as he grinned.
"Bring it."
"Huh… that took long enough."
Yawning, Chifuyu walked on the tarmac, holding in her hand the sword bag in which she stored her bamboo shinai. Her dark blue skirt fluttered slightly as she picked up the pace, looking straight ahead with eyes akin to that of a warrior as she softly increased the strength of her grip on the bag. She was currently walking in what was often referred as the "thug street", an area that was infested with thugs and night-gangs doing their unlawful businesses. Of course, they only appeared after the sun had set.
And right now, the sun had set.
Looking left and right, the seventeen year old girl scanned the surroundings for any potential attackers, but after going even more than halfway through the "street", none had come and she thought something was off.
Until she heard the clash of steel on tarmac from somewhere ahead of her.
Kicking the ground, Chifuyu ran to where she heard the sound come from, hoping that it was a gang fight and not some hopeless victim being preyed by one of the groups.
But her hopes were crushed when she saw the situation.
Before her, at least twenty men stood with their backs to her, and from the gaps, she could see they were surrounding one person- a young boy, judging from the glimpses. Her eyes widened when she saw what was happening however, as whenever one moved to attack, he was either sent flying back in a matter of moments or thrown up to the sky, and the level of finesse and skill being displayed by the boy was one to be reckoned with.
"Who…"
One of the men that were sent flying skidded to a halt right next to her and she could see the black spider tattoo on his right arm, her eyes widening even more as she shifted her gaze from the battle and back to the man.
"A single boy taking on the 'Spiders'? Impossible…"
The 'Spiders', as they were known, were the most notorious and powerful night-gang in Tokyo, claiming many areas for themselves, and were rumoured to be highly skilled in combat- but seeing them being single handedly dealt with right in front of her eyes was something she wouldn't have thought to see in her entire life.
But to add to her further surprise, the boy who now wielded a katana in one hand and a machete in the other was a person she knew- a classmate of her brother's, one that she'd often see standing in the background, far off from the other students.
"I-is that…"
She squinted slightly, making out the details of his face.
"Him...?"
"You monster!"
Screaming, one of the men swung a large crowbar at Sam who easily deflected it with the back edge of his katana, scraping the blade along the bar and quickly but carefully slashing the man's shoulder with the tip of the blade, cutting deep into his flesh before spinning back out of reach and dodging an attack that came from the edge of his peripheral vision, striking the other man in the gut with the handle of his machete.
"I'm not done yet you bastard!" The first man yelled again, swinging the heavy metal bar down at Sam's head with his remaining hand, putting his full force into the strike.
"So you say," Sam grinned as he gracefully sidestepped the incoming bar, pulling his left hand back.
And stabbing the machete deep into the man's gut.
"You sure you're not done yet?" he asked, grinning sadistically as he raised the katana in the other hand.
"Well I'm not!"
Another voice came from behind and Sam barely managed to get out of the way before a pike, fashioned from a sharpened steel pole, passed by where his head had been. Grinning, he spun around and kicked the ground, cutting diagonally upwards and gouging deep into the man's shoulder before knocking him out cold with a sharp strike to the back of the head from the pommel of the sword.
"Alright, four to go."
Looking around, the four men had terrified looks on their faces. They had all fought alongside the others but were lucky enough to not have been dispatched yet, but even then, they were sweating heavily. Their breaths were ragged and they could barely hold their weapon up properly, and yet, there was this lone nine year old boy easily dispatching member after member of the most dangerous gang in Tokyo.
"Who's next?"
Hesitating, one of the men who wielded a pair of combat daggers approached Sam as the boy threw the sword aside, raising his fists again as from behind him, another wielding a large blade began to move. The dual blade struck first, punching at Sam with the blades held in reverse, following up with punch after punch as Sam dodged each and every attack, and even then, he was aware of the sword wielding man behind him, the one who moved in for the kill with a gut stab.
"Good luck with that," he said as he ducked underneath the combat daggers of the dual blade and spun out of the way of the sword wielding thug, catching the dual blade off guard and knocking him flat on the ground before leaping back and preparing for another attack.
And as expected, came another attack.
The thug twisted his body as he ran, hoping to catch Sam with a full powered swing of the broad sword, but Sam had expected this and twisted his body aside, stepping into the opponent as he caught the thug's arm and flipped him over, disarming the thug and holding the blade in his right hand as the thug landed with a thud. He looked over at the remaining two and grinned.
"W-W-We… We surrender…!" one stammered out in fear as he dropped the knuckle dusters he held in his hands, raising them as a symbol of peace.
"...P-please don't hurt us… we've lost!" the other cried out as he dropped the staff he held.
His grin softening into a normal smile of a school boy, Sam dropped the sword and thumbed the button in his pendant, leaning against one of the walls as he awaited the sound of sirens to come.
The fight had only lasted fifteen minutes, but in that time, he'd defeated a total of twenty four men, personally disarming fourteen, knocking out seven and incapacitating one, whereas the last two had simply surrendered.
"You guys put up a good fight," Sam said as he turned and gave the two remaining members of the 'Spiders' a slight wave, walking off in the direction of his home as the sirens grew louder and louder. "But it's a shame you won't be doing it again anytime soon."
"He just… defeated the 'Spiders' all by himself…" an astonished Chifuyu muttered as she made her way back to her home.
"Just how strong is he?"
The very next day, the headlines on the newspaper read- "Spiders defeated! The mystery gang-hunter takes down another large prey" alongside "Mystery gang-hunter from Sakurasen?" and the school was abuzz with the news, students here and there gossiping about the rumour that a boy from their school had taken down the entire 'Spiders' down. There had been news on this "mysterious gang-hunter" for a while now, but this was the biggest one so far. On the article, one of the members who had regained consciousness had reportedly admitted that they were defeated by one man, and that on the man's jacket was the insignia of the Sakurasen Primary School, meaning that the man was a boy after all.
But even though more than one of the members clarified it, it was impossible to believe.
After all, what kind of nine year old boy would defeat the strongest gang in Japan?
"S-So… the rumours were true then? That a boy from my old school defeated the 'Spiders?" Houki voiced out her disbelief. Despite her having moved around throughout her early years, the rumour had become famous due to the article written about the takedown of the 'Spiders', but she had never expected anything like that to be true.
"So… he was really the one who took down the gang? Why didn't he say anything?" Rin raised her voice.
Shrugging, Chifuyu simply took another swig of her beer as she pondered upon the answer for a few seconds.
"It could be because he didn't want anyone to know…"
Trailing off, Chifuyu looked towards the door and stood up, striding across before opening it and looking around, and surely enough, just coming out of his own door, was Sam.
So he hadn't been listening on us… had he?
"Oh, hey Orimura-Sensei. You finished chatting to the girls?"
Shaking her head, she gestured to him as to question what he was doing.
"Just thought I'd take in a bit of the night air for a while," he replied, smiling as he stepped into his sandals and closed the door, walking off in the other direction whilst throwing a backwards wave at Chifuyu.
"That kid…"
Re-entering her room, the girls looked at her in wonder.
"No, it's nothing. Anyway, it could be just because he didn't want anyone to know of this and start more rumours about it."
"But if he's that strong…" Cecilia started, her face still in shock as she tried to process what she'd just been told. "Then why is his IS piloting skill… not as strong? I mean he should technically have taken both Charlotte and Ichika down during that first match, right?"
Chifuyu shrugged again and looked at Laura, who had a hand on her chin as she thought of something.
"You know, I think I'd like to duel him now… IS or non-IS, I just want to feel his strength for myself," Laura broke the silence.
"No way, Laura-chan… you'd do that? But what if Nii-chan beats you? What then?"
"Well, I only said I want to feel his strength for myself. Win or lose, I get to know either way right?" Laura replied, shrugging as she did so. "And if what we heard was true, then I'd most probably lose."
"But Orimura-sensei wouldn't have a reason to lie to us right? Which means that… he really is strong…"
Charlotte's words had the others thinking as they themselves began to ponder on the true strength of the boy that they'd befriended.
"Well, either way… Ichika should be coming back soon so…"
And right at that moment, the door slid open and Ichika appeared on the doorway.
"A-am I intruding on something?"
*Sakurasen Primary School is just a random name I thought up off for the primary school that Ichika, Sam, Rin and Houki went to. Since there wasn't any actual names of the school officially (LN, Anime, Manga etc.), I came up with one.
Author's Note: So we see Sam being real OP here, but don't worry if you think he's not humane~ There'll be more development on him later on~
