Wow, I just realized how fast I've been getting out chapters recently. First there were the last few chapters of Devil Apocalypse and now here I am with already a few chapters of To Fight a God done within several days of each other! Wow, while job-hunting is disheartening, I have to say this kind of benefit of much free time is helpful!

Aside from that, here is the next chapter!

Chapter 11

After having gotten the agreement of help from Ryozanpaku, the Juken Club said their good-byes to the masters and took their leave for the night to head back to their hotel. Nijima followed their lead, heading home to think over everything he's learned.

The night quickly gave way to the next day, which was a weekend day and so now Miu was currently walking home from doing errands all day with Apachai helping her out, rather anxious to get home to check on Kenichi, who had spent the entire night unconscious. The blonde was quick to slam open the gates to Ryozanpaku with a powerful palm thrust and make her way inside.

"We're home!" she yelled as she and Apachai made their way inside the dojo, Sakaki happily reaching out to the bag that Apachai had in his left hand, trying to find a newly bought beer. "How is Kenichi's condition?" she asked Hayato, who happened to be in the same room they had entered.

The Invincible Superman stroked his beard. "Hmm, about that…" he trailed off as Miu and Apachai now actually entered the building.

And that was when they saw Kenichi. Conscious. Not only that, but the teen was up and furiously launching punch after vicious punch at the air yelling. "Ah, damn you Koukin!" he yelled.

His sister Honoka was also there, out of worry for her big brother, and that concern was still evident in her voice as she tried to get his attention. "Onii-chan, you have to sleep!" she cried, hoping that he would listen and rest some more.

"Well, as you can see, he's so energetic that it's a bit of a bother," Hayato said to Miu who was quite shocked to see Kenichi moving around after only a day especially when she considered just how much damage his body took.

Miu however was quickly focused on Kenichi again when he suddenly held his chest in pain, apparently having overstrained himself. Her and Honoka rushed forward in a comical fashion, completely overcome with worry for the Ryozanpaku disciple. However, both stopped and took several steps back when Kenichi looked at them. "There's nothing wrong!" he yelled nearly at the top of his lungs.

Sakaki, having just come inside after getting his beer, twitched in annoyance and walked up to Kenichi. As soon as he was within range, Sakaki let loose with a punch to the top of Kenichi's head, knocking him to the floor with ease. "Dumbass! What kind of asshole yells at people who are worried about him!" he growled out.

Miu rushed forward and knelt next to Kenich, her and Honoka crying out for Kenichi. The blonde took Kenichi into her arms, resting his head against her chest while she glared lightly at Sakaki, the effect of the glare diminished slightly due to the small amount of tears in her eyes.

Sakaki was still affected however. "Well, since it's an injury in his heart, this ain't nothing," he commented.

"What are you saying! He's at the border of life and death!" Miu shot back.

"Yeah! Yeah!" Honoka yelled in agreement.

Miu turned to Kenich. "Hang in there Kenichi," she said softly, not noticing that he was awake now and had small trickle of blood coming down his nose as the brown-haired teen realized where his head was resting.

He suddenly jumped back, almost in fright, much to the confusion of the girls. "Be gone, evil thoughts!" he thought to himself, slapping both of his cheeks to banish what had come to his mind.

But then he got serious and immediately faced Sakaki. "Sakaki-shishou! I would like some personal training!" he said.

Sakaki smirked at this. Quickly finishing off his beer, he crushed the can in his hands and tossed it to the side. "Good idea! Wanna go right now?"

Miu, quickly grabbing a recycle container to catch the flying beer can, looked very worried now. "But it's still too early for sparring!" She was very scared here; Kenichi had barely been out for a full day and here he was wanting to rush back into training. She didn't care how well Akisame's treatment worked on Kenichi, it was still too soon for him to want to do anything even remotely like training.

"I'm fine, Miu-san. I got a full night's sleep. And whatever Koetsuji-sensei did to me to keep me alive really worked its magic," Kenichi said, hoping to placate the blond girl. "Besides…" he trailed off.

Miu and Sakaki looked at him, confused. "What's wrong?" Miu asked.

When Kenichi answered, his voice was a bit quieter. "That Souichiro guy… I don't know why, but when he struck me, I seemed to feel a bit of his emotions or something… he seemed kinda sad." Miu and Sakaki didn't know how to react to that so they just simply remained silent as Kenichi continued again. "It's as if he's doing all of this against his will," Kenichi said, suddenly sounding more determined, "now that I know for a fact that he isn't such a bad guy, I think I should at least try to help him! After all, YOMI is probably just using him!"

He then proceeded to put on his usual training gi. "And with YOMI still in the area, I can't just laze around! I gotta sharpen my skills even more!"

"Well, if you mean the Muay Thai user, Tirawit Koukin, he's already transferred schools. I stopped by the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters earlier today in between errands and Nijima had checked their school files and saw this," Miu said.

Kenichi clenched his fist in comical rage, remembering someone who had managed to beat him and then take off before Kenichi could demand a rematch. "But what about Boris and the others?" he asked.

"They're still students at our school. And at headquarters, everyone was there and they had been keeping an eye out for them, but saw no sign of them," Miu answered.

Hayato, still in the room, stepped forward. "Well then, with that out of the way, Kenichi did say he was fully healed. Let's give him a chance to train."

"Grandfather?" Miu asked, curious and worried.

Hayato shrugged her questioning glance off and instead addressed Akisame, who was standing just several feet away. "Well, Akisame?"

Akisame nodded. "Yes. You could say his body is just fine…" he began.

In the meantime, as he spoke, Kenichi and Sakaki prepared for their spar. "Yosh! Come on, Kenichi!" Sakaki yelled enthusiastically, drawing his left fist back while his right arm move forward, assuming his usual Karate stance.

Kenichi did likewise. "Alright, here I come!" He then charged forward at Sakaki and let out a battle yell as he began to reel his right fist back. Sakaki, however, being a master, did so as well, but at much greater speeds than Kenichi and so his fist was already halfway to Kenichi's face. When Kenichi saw the fist coming, his eyes closed and his whole body tensed.

This didn't go unnoticed by Sakaki. The Karate master subtly slowed his punch, allowing Kenichi enough time to stop flinching and bring up his left arm to deflect the punch away. After the aborted attack, Sakaki slowly brought back his right fist and broke out of his stance. "What's wrong? Let's continue!" Kenichi said as Sakaki then began to turn around and walk away.

"No. It looks like you really couldn't do this yet," Sakaki commented, much to Kenichi's confusion.

Akisame and Hayato shared a knowing glance before leaving the room themselves, leaving Kenichi, Miu, and Honoka standing there in confusion over what just happened. But minutes later, Kenichi decided to try and practice his jujitsu on the stone statues he always practiced on, much to the protests of both Miu and Honoka.

The masters, however, were quick to assemble in another room right after this, Hayato, Akisame, Apachai, Kensei, and Sakaki all sitting together in a circle. Shigure was currently nowhere to be seen. "That punk closed his eyes while we sparred," Sakaki said as he shifted his sitting position a bit.

"As we expected, he has become fearful. Terror has taken up residence in his heart," Akisame said next.

Kensei nodded in agreement. "Yes. Though his body has healed rather nicely since yesterday thanks to us, that YOMI punk and the Souichiro boy has planted the seed of terror in his heart. This is fatal to martial artists. I know a lot of people who have returned from life or death combat with the seed of terror in their hearts and as a result, left the world of martial arts."

Apachai spoke next. "Apa, whenever Kenichi spars with Apachai, he gets close to death. But he always remains calm, so he should be okay this time too!" he said, optimistic about the situation.

Kensei lightly shook his head. "Whenever you put him in a near-death state, Apachai, you lack the intent to kill him. But when there is true killing intent, you can destroy your opponent's heart."

"And just what should we do about it? It looks like the guy hasn't realized it himself yet and if we try using every trick in the book, he'll disappear on us?" Sakaki asked.

"We do nothing. It's a trauma that could last a long time, possibly something that will remain in his heart for the rest of his life," Akisame responded in all seriousness.

"We should definitely rehabilitate him soon. But how are we going to deal with this problem in such a short amount of time…?" Kensei wondered aloud.

The masters sat in silence, pondering this until Hayato let out a hearty laugh. "It's not as hard as you think everyone!" the Invincible Superman said. "To overcome fear, use fear! Isn't that how he's done things until now, over and over again?"

"But this time he fought YOMI and received a wound to his heart and in such a short amount of time…" Akisame replied, but trailed off when he saw the look in Hayato's eyes.

"But have you forgotten? That very capable person who is always trying to conquer fear!" Hayato exclaimed.

In no time at all after that, Hayato was quick to get Kenichi to come with him to see Shigure. Though when the two walked into Shigure's room, Kenichi nearly passed out, for when they entered Shigure was in the process of changing her clothes. The weapons master didn't seem to mind the sudden intrusion though. "Eh? Do you… want something?" she asked.

"Oh my," Hayato said as he and Kenichi spun around and waited outside the door to give the young woman some privacy.

"If you're changing clothes, please say so! I only opened the door because the trap was released!" Kenichi yelled as he tried to banish all thoughts that had come to mind.

"Ah, sorry," Shigure said in her usual quiet and devoid of emotion voice. "But, I was about to… go," she said, as she sheathed a sword and placed it on a stand for other swords.

"Sword hunting," she elaborated as she finished up changing.

"Uh, uh, the Elder told me to go sword hunting with you!" Kenichi said in a hurry.

"That's not entirely… necessary. I can protect myself. Because the place I'm going to… is really a trap," Shigure replied as she put on a large coat over her usual outfit, though when she did, Kenichi briefly saw several weapons hidden away in pockets of the inside of the coat.

"That's okay. I'm asking you to take him with you. It's an established practice," Hayato said with a smile.

"I don't wanna go!" Kenichi thought as he cowered on the floor. He has never really been able to get over usage of weapons and knowing Shigure the way he did, then any enemies encountered would use nothing but weapons and to startling effect too.

Shigure stepped over him as she went to leave. "I'll be waiting in the… genkan," she said. If Kenichi had looked up, he would have seen the weapons master pump her fist in some sort of triumph.

Hayato nodded and then started to stroke his beard as he suddenly thought of something else. "Hmm, and maybe there is someone else that can go along with you as well," he pondered aloud.

Kenichi and Shigure both stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "Who?" Kenichi asked, having been informed a bit on the Juken Club when he had woken up and before Miu had come home. He had, however, not been informed just yet of what the Juken Club had gone through, the masters figuring that it wouldn't do to work him up even more as of yet.

"That brown haired girl. I believe her name was Natsume Aya if I recall correctly," Hayato said thinking back to when the Juken Club introduced themselves.

Shigure thought about this for a moment before nodding in agreement, while Kenichi looked a little lost. "Er, not that I don't mind someone else tagging along, but why her?" he asked.

"Before they left, we were able to find out what kind of martial art styles that they practice," Hayato began, "and Aya-chan is a sword user, which makes her perfect for this kind of trip. And it would do well to try and improve our relationship with the Juken Club now that we are allies," he surmised.

"R-Right," Kenichi said.

Hayato stood up, having been sitting this entire time. "I think I'll give them a call. The one named Shinichiro was nice enough to give us his phone number to contact him."

Meanwhile, as Hayato prepared to do that, the Juken Club was with the Shinpaku Alliance at the latter's headquarters, Miu and Nijima having thought it necessary to introduce them to the group so that potential mix-ups could be avoided. The Juken Club had been introduced to the main members of the Shinpaku Alliance earlier in the morning when the meeting was called after Nijima had called up Shinichiro to arrange the meeting. It had been a most interesting yet almost dangerous first meeting as Nijima had accidently started things off by saying that the Juken Club knew Souichiro, which made most of the Shinpaku Alliance members, such as Takeda, Ukita, Kisara, and a few others get the wrong idea. Thankfully, Nijima and Maya were able to keep things from dissolving into a mess, mainly Maya via grabbing a nearby yard stick Nijima used for mapping out attack/defense plans on a map and slicing through a few walls with a casual Ki-powered swing, courtesy of the training she had put herself through. Needless to say, both groups settled down, the Juken Club mainly because they knew that things were now back under control and the Shinpaku Alliance because they were both amazed and rather scared of Maya's impressive attack.

After that, they had been able to get things to go much more smoothly as the Juken Club had then began to tell them all what they had told Ryozanpaku. They needed all the help they can get in this situation and for that, they felt it best to just come clean with the truth from the get-go. As they had expected, everyone save for Nijima were quite shocked over everything said. They had known that Souichiro was a unique person, but never to such an extent as what they had just been told.

All in all, this was a gathering that had definitely been both very surprising and beneficial to both sides as now the Juken Club could count the Shinpaku Alliance as their allies while the latter now had a better grasp of just what they may go up against.

"Damn!" Takeda and Ukita had muttered in unison. They both found it a good thing to have not tried to attack YOMI as soon as they had shown up at school otherwise they wouldn't have been here.

"So yeah, that's the situation," Maya, the one to have explained the whole thing, said.

The Shinpaku Alliance was dead silent. Aside from what Takeda and Ukita just said, there really was no word they can use to describe their shock.

And that was when Shinichiro's cellphone rang. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out his cell with one swift motion, the short alien-like teen answered it. "Hello?" he said. A second later, he continued. "Ah, Furinji-san, it's good to hear from you," he said, speaking to Hayato. He was silent for about a minute or two as Hayato told him about Shigure's and Kenichi's planned trip. "I'll let her know," Shinichiro replied after Hayato was done.

Turning towards Aya, Shinichiro told her what the call was about. He briefly said how it was a sword hunt and that it was a good opportunity for the newly formed relationship between them and Ryozanpaku to grow. Aya looked at her sister and the rest of the Juken Club and when Maya nodded in acknowledgement, Aya faced Shinichiro and said that she'll go.

Shinichiro nodded. "She's on her way," he said. He and Hayato then said their goodbyes and he hung up just in time to see Aya bid her goodbyes to the Shinpaku Alliance before quickly leaving, but not before Shinichiro told her where exactly to go.

The Shinpaku Alliance on their part looked rather stunned at the very sudden development. "That certainly was… unexpected," Kaname commented. Hibiki and Yuma nodded in agreement from where they stood beside her.

"Getting back on topic," Nijima said a moment later, getting everyone's attention, "I think we can all agree that this is something we need to work together on right?" he said.

Everyone nodded. "Yes. This has quickly gone beyond anything we could have handled on our own," Kaname said.

"Still, to think that Souichiro guy had gone through all of that," Takeda said, rubbing his chin. He had been rather scared of the guy, but after hearing the Juken Club's story, he couldn't help but feel sorry for what Souichiro has had to go through. He couldn't imagine how it'd be to have someone trying to literally take over his mind.

"Yeah," Ukita muttered.

Shinichiro then spoke up. "Anyways, I think it would be best for now to just keep doing what you're doing. That is, keeping an eye out for YOMI. We'll also help out with this task," he said, getting some nods from both groups. "Nagi, for the meantime, should just be left alone and avoided until we can figure out if he is stronger than before or not. If he has gained anymore red feathers, then we need to be very careful since we've never even figured out what kind of abilities he had before too."

"Just how many abilities does he have anyway?" Nijima asked, ignoring the looks the Shinpaku members gave him and Shinichiro, wondering if maybe the two were brothers or something. "I already know for one that he can summon lightning," he said, shivering in remembrance of how he came to know this particular detail.

Masataka shrugged in Shinichiro's place. "We honestly don't know. From the info we do have though, he definitely has more than a hundred. And possibly even higher than that."

The members of the Shinpaku Alliance save for Miu, Tanimoto – who had once again been dragged against his will there though that attitude changed after the Juken Club had started speaking – and Kaname, shivered. More than a hundred abilities? That was an unvoiced thought they all had at the same time.

"Alright," Nijima replied, satisfied by the fact that they were now making some headway in this.

But then Miu raised a point. "But how will you be able to watch YOMI if you're not a part of our school? Unless you plan to sneak in," she said.

Maya and Shinichiro shared a look. "We'll think of something. We'll sneak around if we have to, but if that doesn't really work out, then we can always use Mitsuomi's influence to get us into your school," Maya said.

"Who's Mitsuomi?" Miu asked, confused. The name has come up in the Juken Club's story, but aside from his part in the whole thing, they never actually said who he really was.

Masataka was about to answer, but surprisingly Nijima spoke. "He's the current head of the Takayanagi family and is the older brother of this guy here," he said, pointing a finger at Masataka.

Everyone was surprised, save for the Juken Club, who were shocked. "How did you know that?" Masataka practically demanded.

Nijima got a sheepish expression on his face, backing away in fear in case he pissed them off. "Last night, I basically went into overdrive and tried to dig up as much info on you guys as I can." He eyed Bob. "For example, I know that him and Souichiro were called the Knuckle Bombs and went around beating the crap out of people at different schools."

Bob twitched at that, though he had to admit, it did bring up some good memories of him and Souichiro just doing what they loved best: causing havoc. "Don't see why we don't just take down these YOMI guys right now instead of just letting them mess shit up even more," he mumbled.

Maya sighed. "For all we know, that could just cause more problems than it's worth. I mean, I doubt that the rest of YOMI, wherever they are, would take something like that lying down," she said, berating Bob slightly.

"And besides, if we go against YOMI right now, we could end up at risk ourselves with Nagi," Shinichiro pointed out.

Bob grumbled. Kagesada just shook his head. "Man, this is all messed up," he muttered, running a hand through his hair.

The room was quiet for a minute or two as everyone simply digest everything said and began to plan things out a bit. "So we are all agreed on this?" Nijima asked, looking from the Shinpaku Alliance to the Juken Club. When they all nodded, he spoke again. "Then I think that's enough for now," he said. And with that, the meeting was over.

As the meeting came to end in the Shinpaku Alliance headquarters, Kenichi and Shigure were currently waiting for their train at the nearest train station. Kenichi had his arms crossed as he wondered just how this sword hunt of Shigure's would turn out. He admits without any doubt that he was quite nervous and even scared over this matter; he never was one for weapons, never was and most likely never will.

The Ryozanpaku disciple looked over at Shigure, who stood patiently, staring in the direction the train would be coming from. As the weapons master did this, she was completely oblivious to or at least uncaring of the stares she was garnering, some from a good handful of passing men due to her attractive figure, even if it was hidden a bit by the coat, while the other stares were mainly a result of her clothing, some people taking note of the glimpses of Shigure's usual wear under the coat.

Kenichi gulped as he looked down, remembering that Shigure, despite her aloofness, could be downright terrifying and wished that he would not be subject to seeing that side on this trip. In his heart, he knew that this wish was a futile one; given the kind of trouble he's encountered on previous trips with his other masters, Kenichi wasn't really expecting this one to be an exception.

"Excuse me!" Kenichi looked up from the ground in time to see Aya, whom he didn't know, running past people, trying not to bump into anyone.

His eyes widened as Aya quickly approached and he took in her appearance. "She's even bigger than Miu and Shigure!" he thought, his eyes accidently wandering below Aya's face. But he then shook his head, ridding himself of the current thoughts he was experiencing and tried to take in the entirety of Aya's appearance; the wielder of the Dragon's Eye was currently dressed in a grey tank top that had a band logo on it, the material clinging snugly to her upper body. Aya also wore fitting dark blue jeans, matched by her black boots. On her back, behind her long brown hair tied into a still long ponytail, was what looked like a bag that Kenichi has usually seen some people carrying swords in. He unconsciously hoped that it wasn't a real sword in there.

Aya finally reached the two and she paused for a moment to catch her breath, having run as fast as she could from the Shinpaku headquarters to the train station. Kenichi had noticed her speed as well and was surprised to see that perhaps the only person his age he could think that could probably match Aya's speed was Miu.

"Sorry for taking so long," Aya said, bowing in apology. "It's good to see you again," she said to Shigure, who nodded in response. Then she turned to Kenichi, who took a step back in surprise, having been broken out of his thoughts once again when Aya smiled kindly at him. "And it's good to see that you're alright too," she said to him with a smile.

Kenichi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Thanks. I'm a fast healer," he said in response. Then the two of them were silent for a moment as they seemed to size each other up, Aya doing so out of curiosity while Kenichi did so since he still didn't know who this girl was. But then he found himself staring and snapped out of it. "Uh, I'm Kenichi. Shirahama Kenichi," he said, bowing.

"Natsume Aya," Aya replied, bowing in return. "It's good to meet you."

Kenichi was about to say the same thing, but then the sound of a screeching train filled the air, cutting him off. "The train is… here," Shigure said from where she was still standing.

And sure enough, several seconds later, the train appeared, pulling to a stop. After its doors opened and passengers were let out, Shigure boarded the train. Kenichi and Aya quickly followed, slightly taken aback by how sudden Shigure did this.

Several seconds later, the doors closed and the train left.

Hmm, I probably could have made this longer, but there were several things that I want to save for the next few chapters. Sorry once again for another talking chapter, but don't worry; soon enough action will be coming!

Well, not much else to say now other than that within the next few days, I will be signing up for my new classes in my 2nd year of college. And I'm not sure exactly what comes after this other than paying fees and all, so there is a chance that the next chapter may or may not take longer to be posted.

But until then, hope you enjoyed this and be sure to review!