Chapter 2

The Beast called Baron

"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

The commander of Arzenal was ruthless in her methods as Kaito received the same training schedules as the girls. But to be honest it was more like they enjoyed watching him train while carrying a heavy sack.

The man had managed to beat all the records with that sack, though that didn't surprise anyone much seeing as he was a guy and the records only had the girls' times.

Kaito's usage of guns and all kinds of weapons were also superb, especially using a lance, more specifically a European lance. With hand to hand combat, he could beat just about anyone in the island but that didn't mean much since he could go toe to toe with all the riders in his old world.

Finally, his piloting skills were good, too good in the opinions of the members of Arzenal. With their knowledge of no male Norma, they had believed that males relied too much on their magic, but Kaito proved them wrong to hell. In the simulations, he had taken down just about everyone be it in a one on one fight, team fight or a one vs all fight.

Regardless of his 'achievements', Ange was not impressed. In fact, she wanted beat the shit out of him even though she would fail. The former princess was still sour from him making her shoot. That had earned her a week in solitude confinement as punishment. Though Ange was glad that he was alive, she dreaded over killing a human being. When she got out of the cell, she heard that Kaito had become quite popular among the females. Though they just keep a distant from him watching from afar while some others didn't like him for some reason.

For the former Overlord himself, it was a bit disturbing for him during the first few days as he was treated like an endangered zoo animal. It didn't matter where he went, everyone looked at him like a rare animal, or a new toy. Though it may had something to do with his uniform. It was similar to the girls, white with a bit of colour. Though unlike the girls, Kaito's shirt covered his abdomen. Its jacket color was purple and his old Baron uniform was taken away since it was a rule to strip them of everything that reminded them of their old lives. It wasn't his first choice, but hey, at least he wasn't naked. The former Overlord had managed to learn about the facility or base called Arzenal where the Norma were exiled to.

The base was used to defend the world against beings called DRAGONs, short for Dimensional Rift Attuned Gargantuan Organic Neototype, creatures from another world.

When Kaito heard of that, he couldn't help but scoff at the similarities of this world with his own. After all, back there the Yggdrasil Foundation had carried out research on ways to fight the Inves with were from another world and Project Ark.

The biggest difference, in the former Rider's opinion, was that instead of the Rider system created by that bastard Sengoku Ryoma, giant mechs known as Para-mails were created by scientists and engineers. But like in his previous world, Kaito knew there was someone playing the world like puppets, no matter the world, there will never be anyone who would help the world just for the sake of that… well, maybe not his rival, that guy was a saint to the core.

As he familiarized himself with the base Kaito had found out about the children who were trained to be soldiers. The man couldn't disagree it was a good way to preserve resources given that they needed people who could contribute and not free load of the island. But he didn't have to like it, in fact he hated it.

The former Overlord had visited the cemetery. There were graves all over the place, graves for the ones who died in battle. When he laid his eyes on the grave plates, he felt disgusted. There were names and the ages of those who died, a fine way to honour the dead. However, that wasn't what caught his attention. It was the ages that bothered him, some were younger than he was by a decade. The thought of girls half his age fighting DRAGONs in Para-mails made his blood boil.

To the girls of Arzenal, the man knew, given his status as the only man on the island, he had gained some fame. But he also knew some of them feared him, most probably because they never met a man in their whole lives, plus if what he heard about their beliefs of men were correct, it wouldn't be too strange for their reactions.

There was also a market inside the base, better known as Jasmine's Market where the occupants went to buy stuff like dresses, jewelry, daily needs or other useless stuff for the female populace. It would also seem that there was a rule on the island, 'If you have the money, you can get yourselves anything.' For Kaito, he wanted to buy a needle and a thread for some reason. When Kaito first saw how Para-mails were used to battle the DRAGONs, especially in the simulators, the man had never felt so excited in his lives, both of them.

Unfortunately, Jill forbid him to ride one, at least not until his training was over. As for the pilot suits, they were customized by the tailors on the island to fit him, after all they only had suits for females. Speaking of being a pilot, some of them had protested with him getting a Para-mail, but Jill wouldn't hear any of it, fortunately for the man.

Another thing was that as punishment for shooting the man, Ange was to be put under Kaito's command. Both had flat out refused to even consider that idea, Kaito didn't like the idea of babysitting anyone, hell he never did it before he became an Overlord, he sure as hell won't do it here.

Ange also made it clear she would never in her whole life, in her own words, 'Follow any orders from a brute like him.' The former princess even complained that he was getting special treatment but so the commander decision was still final even if both of them didn't like the idea.

As such, Kaito and Ange became neighbours. If that wasn't enough, Ange sang at night, for every night, most probably just to annoy the man. It succeeded to some extent since he preferred to sleep in silence, and as much as Kaito wanted to, he couldn't enter the girl's room to tie her up and gag her mouth since Jill had warned him not do that or he would lose the one thing that made him a man.

Thus, regardless of the annoying singing, the former Overlord swallowed his pride and slept through it. But everyone had a limit, after a month, Kaito finally snapped. The man still questioned his sanity for doing it, but he channelled the Beat Rider in him and started to sing the same song that the princess sang just to spite her. It worked seeing as Ange became frustrated with his blatant disrespect for the song of the royal family, even if his singing wasn't bad.

Thus, their banter continued and somehow turned into a competition to see who would last long enough in a duet. The other girls got annoyed since they preferred to have their rest in silence, even if their singing wasn't bad.

Kaito had also sang his patented songs, Never Surrender, Unperfected World and Ranbu Escalation, the man still questioned his sanity for doing that, but Ange picked up the songs and sang them to spite him just as he did to her. Eventually, both of them started an unofficial rivalry, they competed to see who was better, like who could eat faster, run faster, do more pushups or shoot better.

Their little rivalry had also caught the attention of the girls on the island. Sometimes the girls would place bets to see who would win. Needless to say, Kaito won every time since he still retained his super strength, super speed and endurance from when he became Lord Baron. Though it wasn't as good as when he transformed, it was still above what normal humans could do.

Kaito also took in any knowledge he could get his hands on. The man even challenged the princess to a cooking contest where they had to eat what they made. Kaito had to learnt to cook to survive in the wilderness so it was natural to him. The man made a perfect rice omelet while Ange made something akin to burnt charcoal. When she tried it herself, the former princess had spat the 'food' out. To add salt to the wound, Kaito had made another omelette and gave it to Ange while he said with smile, "You should learn how to cook Hime."

The former princess didn't have a comeback, she knew as well as he did that since Ange had lived the life of a princess, she only had her servants cook for her.

That aside, Kaito had a bad feeling about the place. Unlike in the Helheim, where he would constantly be on guard, Kaito always had a tingle down his spine at night. He even went as far to barricade his door with everything he had, which he still thought was ridiculous for him, but his gut told him the girls would eventually do something to him that would scar him for life, so he did it. It was as if he was a small sheep in a lion's den, or in this case multiple lioness' den, ready to be devoured if not careful.

Even when he ate in the cafeteria, the females would sit nearer, trying to look at him. There were some who even poked him and told their friends that they poked him as if it was some kind of achievement. Fortunately for the girls, Kaito was a patient man, not to the extent of having the patience of a Buddha, but patient nonetheless.

The girls had also found the man strange and interesting, since unlike most men they met, if they lived in the world of Mana before being exiled, Kaito did everything with his own hands and legs, which earned him points in their books. Another reason was that Kaito was quite handsome, even more so when he started to open up to them, if only a little bit. The girls even managed to spy on him when he practiced privately in a secret spot on the island, though he had himself to blame for that since he played the music he normally had for Team Baron after he bought a recorder from Jasmine's mall, which fortunately had the music he needed.

On the island, Kaito needed a way to reduce stress, given all the things he went through. Plus, the children always watched him, somehow finding his spot before the bunch of vultures that were the girls of Arzenal, the kids also asked him to teach them how to dance. With the faces and size that screamed 'Moe!', he couldn't really refuse much. Plus even if he wouldn't admit it, Kaito found teaching the little girls to be a fun past time, which the elder girls found to be adorable.

Some time after that, Kaito noticed a katana sitting on a stand in Jasmine's market. It had a golden hilt and a black blade. There was something about that blade attracted him, and for some reason he felt like he should get it.

"Oh, you like that blade? It's an old heirloom, we found it in the trash and it was in perfect condition, so we brought it back. You can have if you want for a price". The old merchant called Jasmine said as she noticed Kaito's interested gaze.

" How much is it?" he asked.

"50, 000 is the normal price but for you, since you're the first male to come here I'll give you 35, 000 how's that?"

Kaito didn't have that kind of money since he was stripped of everything… Well not everything, he had ways but that didn't mean he couldn't trade it for something useful like that Katana.

" I don't have that much but how about a trade?" Kaito asked as he started to pull out a necklace from his pocket. The necklace was of high quality with a ruby in the center. It was also designed by a skilled jeweler.

"Hmm such high quality, how did you acquire it might I ask ?" The woman took the necklace and examined with interest.

"That's a secret. Since its more than the Katana, how about we keep this to ourselves?" Kaito suggested with a small smirk.

"You sure are one sneaky bastard," Jasmine chuckled and threw the blade to Kaito. The man caught it easily and turned to leave before the woman called out, "Oh before you leave, just wanna tell you that the blade's name is Onikirmaru."

"Ogre slayer, huh, such a fitting name," Kaito unsheathed the sword a bit and he couldn't help but be impressed with the dark blade.

"It suits you, boy. I can tell that you're something else, but I won't indulge too much in that. Have fun with it," Jasmine finished before Kaito left.

Soon, the time came for Kaito's first fight against the DRAGONs. The man had never felt as excited before, he was smirking confidently unlike any other of the rookies. Normally rookies would be nervous or terrified at the thought of facing such monsters, but Kaito was far from one. The man was as excited as when he received his Sengoku Driver and Banana Lockseed.

The Para-mail he was given was once used by a rookie that was killed caused by Ange. It was a mere Glaive, the infamous 'No Make' for rookies but he accepted it. With his first battle, he deployed with the second squad.

His first battle was impressive, the elder girls were shocked to see him pilot the Glaive with such ease and killed more than half of the DRAGONs by himself. According to Salia, he did much better than Ange did and was congratulated for his piloting skills. This also earned him enough money to buy his thread and needles. As for the rest of his money, he gave them to the other pilots since he didn't need that much money.

Still, several questions arose, why were only the Norma fighting the DRAGONs? why only use Ice attacks on giant dragons? Why not finish them and why when there's an alarm the dragons would pop up unlike the crack in Hellheim were like floating dandelions open suddenly anytime and anywhere.

(Flash back)

The smaller pink dragons, the Scuna class DRAGONs, were starting to attack Kaito but he dodged them easily and transformed into battle mode as he aimed his gun and shot down three DRAGONs with perfect accuracy. He was wearing a black pilot suit that covered his entire body and a helmet. Though unlike the females' pilot uniforms, his version was more darker, and in his opinion, provided much more protection.

"This is way too easy," laughed the former Overlord as he slashed upwards to bisect another one when it got into his range.

As the man piloted his Glaive, which still had the basic equipment only, he cut down more DRAGONs than anyone could as he navigated through the battlefield like a war demon.

The rest of squad two were just standing there doing nothing, not for the lack of trying but because Kaito pretty much all their work, plus he always gave them most of the money while keeping some for himself.

After the battle, Jill called the man to see her in her office. As he entered the office, he saw Ange standing there in front of the desk. The blonde glared at him half-heartedly and nodded to him in respect. The man nodded back and stood in attention when Jill cleared her throat.

"Kaito, I've received some reports saying that you can solo the DRAGONs, so I'm taking you off the squad. Plus this can actually prove that you can do it alone. " the commander spoke in her usual harsh tone.

It was true that Jill had pulled some strings for Kaito to get his Glaive, but according to the reports he could pretty much wipe out a wave of DRAGONs in minutes. She needed proof of that, plus he still needed to further prove his worth in their ranks.

"Ho, that's not a bad idea, commander," Kaito grinned.

"By the way, Ange, I'm taking you off of the first squad. I did say you would follow his orders, so from now on, Ange, you will be fighting under Kaito," the commander finished with a devious grin.

Unfortunately for the commander, they did not agree.

Ange protested, "Hell no! I refuse to follow his orders."

Kaito sighed, "Just stay out of my way, I don't care about giving orders. I alone am enough."

Ange narrowed her eyes, "Then let's see who kills the most DRAGONs in the next battle, the loser has to do one thing the winner says, no matter what."

Jill had tuned them off at this point. While she found their rivalry to be amusing, the commander had no desire to listen to their banters.

Kaito smirked, "Omoshiroi, very well, I accept your challenge. When I win, you'll clean all the toilets with a toothbrush and I want all of them spotless."

Ange nodded and said with a devious grin, "Fine, and when I win, you'll lick my feet."

The former princess was confident in her skills, after all she had piloted way longer than he did. But unfortunately for the girl, she didn't know about Kaito's past. She didn't know that he had decades of experience under his belt from when he fought the Inves and the Overlords and Ange sure as hell didn't know what Kaito went through when he himself became an Overlord. After that, the two warriors parted to prepare and get some rest.

Meanwhile, in an unknown lab, a bunch of scientists were studying a black device, Kaito's Sengoku Driver. His broken Lockseeds were locked up in a glass box as the people took apart the driver. When they found the core piece of the buckle, they couldn't access any of the data in it. Every time they tried, the computers would show errors. Eventually they stopped when the computer crashed from the security system of the belt. After all, Sengoku Ryoma was a genius, he had placed security programmes to send viruses to any computer that tried to get his secrets. He even install a fail safe on all Genesis Driver that would be destroyed with a touch of a button.

The next day, Ange was in the toilets, scrubbing the ground with a toothbrush that Kaito gave her in the morning. Regardless of how humiliating it was, Ange kept her promises, especially when it comes to bets. However it didn't mean that she had to like it.

Ange cursed as she continued to clean the toilet, "How the hell can he be better than me? I've been here longer than him." Ange then thought about it, 'Well, longer by a few weeks, but that still amounts to something.'

Then her musings were cut off as she heard an annoying voice, one she didn't want to hear in the morning.

"Oh, what do we have here? The princess is cleaning the toilets, how fitting," came the voice of Hilda from behind.

Ange turned and glared at the sight of the three girls standing there looking down at her, literally. The three bitches had walked right into the toilets even with the 'Cleaning in progress' sign outside. What's worse was that they came in with dirty shoes, shoes covered with mud.

"Oh sorry by the way, my shoes are dirty," Hilda commented mockingly as she scratched her shoes against the floor.

Then Hilda walked over to the side, kicking the bucket as she did, causing water to splash on Ange. The redhead smirked, "Oh, sorry. It was in the way."

Then Chris tilted the bottle of juice she was holding, letting the juice spill onto the floor, grinning as she said, "Oops, sorry."

"You bitches," Ange growled as she glared at them. For the first time in her whole life, she was cleaning the floor with a toothbrush, even worse with the constant bitching from Hilda, Chris and Rosalie.

Rosalie commented as they walked out, "Don't forget to clean those spots."

As they walked out, the three girls saw Kaito leaning against the wall with his arms folded. Hilda smirked at the man as they walked away. Kaito sighed, he hated bullies, hell, he could go as far as to say that he detested them. But in his opinion, Ange brought this upon herself. He had heard about how Ange caused the deaths of three people when she first came here, and even if he wanted to help her, it would only make things worse.

While Kaito had his fair share of experiences when it came to being pushed around, he had pushed back with more force. Now, Ange was going through the same thing, it was merely a phase, and he knew Ange would come back stronger than ever. It worked for him after all, the Yggdrasil Corp. had taken away his father's factory, many others had also pushed him around until he learned to fight back.

When Jill told him about why Hilda, Chris and Rosalie hated her, and why the majority of the island were a bit hostile when it came to Ange, Kaito could related to her for a bit. After all, Zack and most of his former comrades had turned to Kouta's side when he became Lord Baron, except for Minato of course, he still had no idea what was going in her mind even now.

The man didn't blame those who left him. To them, Kaito had discarded his humanity, while Kouta had obtained a similar power but through different ways. It was clear to him, he got them for power, Kouta received his powers because of his desire to protect.

To Ange, the girl's hatred for Kaito increased. Well, not exactly hatred, more like anger. The man had bested her in almost everything, even at something she prided herself in. But unfortunately, the man still won, and she had to suffer the humiliation of cleaning a toilet of all things. But she wouldn't stay silent, hell no, what comes around goes around, an eye for an eye, as they say after all. But in this case it would be a banana for a banana.

It was then Ange started to plan to get back at the former Overlord. As Ange finished the last spot, she remembered that almost 90% of the population of the island were quite smitten with him. She also knew Kaito didn't really like his reputation among the girls. A devious grin found its way onto Ange's face as a plan formed in her mind.

Later, during the time Kaito was allowed to use the showers, the man had placed his clothes on a bench outside the shower area. As the man cleaned up, a figure snuck in carefully and took away the clothes and the towel he had. As the figure left, all that was left there was a small towel that would only be enough to cover up the man's private areas.

Half an hour later, Kaito walked out of the showers with an annoyed face. The only piece of clothing was the small towel he had that covered his manhood and his dignity. The man hated pranksters even if he was a bit of one, it was a totally different thing when it came to pranking others and getting pranked. Kaito knew full well who took his clothes, and he didn't like it one bit.

As Kaito walked, he had never felt so nervous as he did, even if he kept his poker face up. Everywhere he went, the girls would stop whatever they were doing to ogle him. Some of them even took pictures of him. But that wasn't what scared him, what scared him was the hungry stares he got from the girls. It was as if he was a piece of meat ready to be devoured by a pack of lions… or in this case lionesses. Though no one could blame them, Kaito had a near perfect body. The scars that decorated his body only boosted his appeal. Though the girls couldn't help but get curious with the scars, especially the one at his waist that looked like a sword wound.

Deciding to resolve his current problems first, Kaito made his way to Jasmine's mall, trying hard to ignore the stares he received as he did. As he reached the warehouse, Jasmine grinned at his predicament, "Oh, new look?"

Kaito stared at her with a deadpanned expression, "Please don't. Just give me a set of clean clothes, I'll pay you back later."

Jasmine nodded as she took out a set of clothes and threw them to Kaito. The woman then pointed to a fitting room behind her, "Change in there."

Kaito nodded in appreciation as he went in quickly. In less than 5 minutes, the man walked out with a clean grey shirt and jeans, much to the disappointment of the girls around them. Kaito said to Jasmine once more before he left, "I'll pay you back later."

Jasmine nodded as she watched Kaito walk away, chuckling as he did.

To Ange, she watched the whole thing some distance away from a hidden place. The plan didn't exactly go as planned, but it was enough. Though she had to admit, if only to herself, Kaito did have a nice figure. He had a perfect body, even with a smart brain to go with it. (Anyone catch that? SMART BRAIN) Hell, she could even say that he looked like those popular guys, and if it wasn't for his cold personality and the fact that Ange disliked him so much, she would say that he fitted every criteria she wanted in a man.

At midnight, a man stood in a basement. He wore clothes of a nomad, with a scarf wrapped around his neck and a bandana on his head. In front of him was a caged creature.

The creature gave a soft growl as the man chuckled sadly, "Such a shame. You're the first and the last of your kind here. But then I can't blame them, you're quite dangerous after all."

The creature gave no reply, only blinking lights at him.

The man smiled, "Well, you're something else. But you can be quite picky when it comes to the riders."

The object stayed silent as the man continued, grinning at it as he said, "So why don't you rock the world one more time, stir the world as you desire. After all, the one you're destined to be with is here, what do you say?"

It gave no reply yet again as Sagara laughed, "I'll tell you this, one last time, you're a dragon. One ready to take the skies, and even then its not your limit."

The manifestation of the Helheim forest laughed to himself as he left the place. As he did, the snake couldn't help but wonder how the wild card known as Kumon Kaito would affect the world, like how Kazuraba Kouta did with his own world.

The next day, another attack had been detected. The squads all got ready to launch. Unfortunately, as fate would have it, all the Para-mails were unable to launch. The mechanics all rushed their asses to get them running, but they found that the fuel reserves of the Para-mails and the batteries of the systems were all empty. By the time they could refuel the units and the batteries, the DRAGONs would have already destroyed the island. Fortunately, Kaito's Glaive seemed to be the only functional unit.

The man wasted no time to launch out of the hangar. Kaito wasn't afraid, it wasn't the first time he fought an army by himself. The man had destroyed an army of Inves and Kurokage troopers. Well, he had his Overlord powers and the Genesis Driver then, but it still amounted to something.

As Kaito shot down several more Scuna class DRAGONs, the man pulled the trigger again to find the clips to be empty. He cursed and switched the gun to grenade mode, using the explosives to kill more Scuna and Brigg classes as he flew around.

But soon even the grenades were used up. Kaito cursed, "Fuck this."

The man willed his Para-mail to throw the useless rifle away and drew his swords. As he did, two Brigg DRAGONs saw it as an opening and flanked him. But Kaito would have none of that. The man willed his Glaive to flip sideways. The 'No Make' kicked one of the DRAGONs away before he slashed at the other DRAGON's neck, killing it in the process.

Kaito smirked, "One down, one to go!"

The man quickly regained his bearings and stabbed both of his swords into the other Brigg class DRAGON, pulling the swords upwards as he ripped it in half.

His victory was shortened however as the other DRAGONs charged him. Kaito willed his Glaive to enter flight mode, using its speed to out run the DRAGONs. Then the man went back into Assault mode and cut down the DRAGONs with his blades, beheading most of the DRAGONs as he did.

Meanwhile, back at the hangar, the others were all rushing to refuel the machines and recharge the batteries. Salia asked Mei, "How's it going?"

The head mechanic sighed as she replied with a troubled face, "We're done refilling the fuel and the battery, or at least its enough for launch. But we can't activate them. It would seem someone tampered with them last night."

The captain of Squad one stared at her in surprise, "What? How?"

Mei shook her head, "I don't know. Even then, why leave Kaito's Glaive? Why all of them except that one Glaive?"

Salia frowned, "We have no time for that, we need to launch now!"

Vivian nodded, "Yeah, we need to go! Kaito-san is fighting all alone."

Ersha agreed, "He won't last long."

Mei nodded, "We're doing everything we can, I just hope we can make it in time."

Hilda then asked, looking at Ange as she did, "But who did this?"

Chris and Rosalie also looked at Ange accusingly, after all it wasn't a secret about the bet they made previously, even though it was impossible for her to do this in one night. But Ange was drowned in her own thoughts, 'Why would anyone do this? I don't like him, but even I wouldn't do this.'

Meanwhile, above the ocean, Kaito was cursing his luck. Two of the Scuna DRAGONs had managed to break his swords, and the Glaive could only fight bare handed with the swords gone and his rifle empty.

The man smirked as the DRAGONs charged him again. He flipped upwards to avoid a blast of fire from the Scuna class DRAGONs before he wrestled with a Brigg class as it tried to close its jaws on him. Kaito managed fling the massive green reptile into the sea before he shot upwards to avoid several Scuna classes.

As Kaito regained his bearings, the man's eyes widened as his eyes landed on a familiar creature. One he had fought, killed and commanded during his previous life. In front of him, floating among the other DRAGONs, was a Seiryu Inves.

The Inves roared at the Glaive, seemingly recognizing him as it charged the Glaive piloted by the former Overlord.

This is the next chapter I was in a good mood and Collaboration with Gaim no Kaze.