Chapter 04 – Meeting of Old and New Faces

Foreword from author: This chapter marks the introduction of two familiar characters into the fanfiction – one pair with opposite personalities while one is the magnified version ofanother in this pairing. So I wanted to use the familiar characters' personalities to bring out the real people in the two new characters. I apologise if I wasn't successful, and also for the abrupt ending of this chapter because it is quite a long one and I've got to end the chapter somewhere.

Two hours later, Takeshi was called to the principal's office.
"You called me?" Takeshi asked the principal the minute he sat down.
"Yes." The principal replied. "First I need to say that I'm impressed at how you took care of the gangsters that are threathening our school's security. And for the second thing, I'm pleased to inform you that you're participating in the alumni mentorship project."
"What? You mean that poster out there is…" Takeshi said, seemingly surprised.
"Yes. That poster is to inform the students that we'll be pairing up selected students with the alumni of Izumizaka High, and you're one of the selected students to take part. In fact, we only select forty students from the whole of first-year students to partner the alumni for the whole of their school life here." The principal explained to him.
But Takeshi doesn't seem happy about it.

"I wonder…" he thought to himself before thinking of the words they said about the poster:

(extracted from chapter 03)
"Wow… I can't believe that she's in this project too…!" one student from the crowd exclaimed. "I wish that she can be my mentor!"
"I hope that I can be his mentee!" said a female voice from the same crowd.
"…but whoever he or she is, I have to be careful!" Takeshi continued thinking as he walks out of the principal's office.

The next day in the morning, a teacher went into Class 1-5 to give out letters to inform those selected students of whom they're mentored from next Monday onwards. Takeshi received his letter from the teacher-in charge that came in to give out the letters.

During lunchtime, some of his classmates came to Takeshi's desk where he sits.

"Um… Kitahara?" one of his classmates calls him.
"Yes?" Takeshi gave his usual murderous look at them.
"Um… we would like to know who you're… pairing with in the project…?" another classmate asks him with a little fear in him.
"You mean… the mentorship project, right?" Takeshi asks back.
All three of his classmates nodded their heads in response.
Takeshi took out the letter that was given to him and opened it. When he look at the name of the person that was assigned to him in the letter, his eyes suddenly flattened (means that he is getting very serious).
"Well… who…is it…?" the third student asked him.
Takeshi flipped his letter to show them the name on it, which made the three shocked in horror as they did not expect this.
"What…? No way it's him…!" all three students exclaimed at sight of the name in there.

Two days passed, and the students are discussing something when Takeshi walks down the walkway outside the classrooms. As soon as he does that, the topic that the students are talking changed immediately.

"Look! The modern Battousai…" one student exclaimed in secret.
"I wouldn't have believed it myself! He's got himself the hottest pairing of the whole first-year students…!" another whispered.
"Looks like bad news travel fast…!" Takeshi thought as he walks down the walkway, seeing the face of those students that are not selected for the pilot project. Then he looks at the letter and in the end of it, wrote a familiar name to those Ichigo 100 readers: Manaka Junpei.

"No way! He's going to partner up with Manaka-senpai?" A female student asked her friend with shoulder-length hair.
"I guess anything could happen…" the student with shoulder-length hair replied sadly.

A few days later, Sunday arrived. Takeshi went to a person's home to visit. But it was no ordinary person's house that he goes to. However, when he rings the doorbell, there was no answer. So he went to the park to find him. But before he starts his search, someone calls out to him.

"Hey! Are you Kitahara Takeshi?" a voice calls out from behind.
This alarmed Takeshi and he quickly holds the handles of his blades, seemingly ready to draw them out.
"Who's that? Show yourself!" he barked out.
"I'm behind you." The voice continued. Suddenly a video camera pops out of nowhere and a grown-up guy appeared near where Takeshi stood. This forced Takeshi to change to a fighting stance to brace up for a counter-attack, thus showing his murderous look. This was captured by the grown-up guy's camera viewfinder, which in turn shocked his guts out!
"Aaaaahhhhh!" the grown-up guy screamed. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me! I promise I won't make you angry again, promise!"
The grown-up guy kept bowing to Takeshi with his hands clasped.

"What happened…?" Takeshi asks him, feeling uneasy about this person. "Stop this nonsense!"
"Huh?" the grown-up guy stopped what he's doing, and slowly look up to see the Takeshi in front of him.
It seems like the murderous look is still there, but he doesn't seem angry.
"Uh… sorry about that…" the grown-up guy apologised. "…it's just my old work problem, I am really scared when I see scary faces…"
"Why are you tailing me? And why are you holding a video camera?" Takeshi asked the grown-up guy back.
"Um…" the grown-up guy was speechless for a while, then answers back. "…I just wanted to get some inspiration to film in, and also to look for someone…"
"You mean… you're looking for me?" Takeshi wasn't convinced. "How did you know my name?"
"Um… I just saw your knives on your belt…" the grown-up guy pointed to the KaiXuan Blades hung on Takeshi's belt.
"So you're…" Takeshi seems to remember something…
"Yes. I'm supposed to find this person…" the grown-up guy said, and took out a letter similar to what Takeshi has, but with Takeshi's name on it instead.
"So you're… Manaka Junpei-san, right?" Takeshi asks this final question.
"Now you know who I am!" Junpei said while finally smiling, but Takeshi doesn't feel it at the least, and shakes his head.

Meanwhile, in another house at another part of the city, a girl with shoulder-length hair rings the doorbell and someone comes to open the door. When the young woman inside opens the door for this girl she seemed surprised.

"Aiko-chan! How come you are here?" the young woman asked her.
"I couldn't believe it either! The school placed me with you as my mentor." Aiko replied back in a surprised tone. "But I'm worried…"
"Come. Let's go in and we'll have a little talk, okay?" the young woman invited Aiko in and closed the door.

When they sat down on the sofa Aiko seems a little troubled.

"I…" Aiko stammered. "I… am worried that if I'm placed under your mentorship, Aya-oneechan, then... will they laugh at me…?"
"Of course not, Aiko-chan." Aya assured her. "But honestly, I'm surprised too you know… to mentor my own god-sister. But don't worry, I'll still treat you as my sister, okay?"
This calmed Aiko, and starts to smile slowly.
"Oh! I forgot to bring drinks for you! Can you please wait for a while?" Aya said, and went into the kitchen to bring out some drinks for Aiko.

Back to the scene at the park, Takeshi and Junpei sat down on one of the chairs in the park, and they started to talk.

"I couldn't believe that you can bring those weapons to school, you know." Junpei said, curious at his KaiXuan Blades hung on both sides on his waistbelt. "But what happened to you that you have to bring those knives wherever you go?"
"My bodyguards are killed in an instant by some force that was unknown to me, so I have to arm myself for self-protection." Takeshi explained briefly. "Why did you ask?"
"Not for a particular reason actually…" Junpei said with a silly smile on his face. "But as far as I understand, there is one famous warrior that I would hope to film on… Do you know about the famous bladesman last year? The one who made headlines by taking down the bullies from his middle school?"
Takeshi thought for a while, and nodded his head.
"I have some impression about this person…" he replied.

"But how does he know about my past…?" Takeshi thought while replying to Junpei's question.

"By the way…" Junpei asked Takeshi. "…I heard that you helped arrest the gangsters that are threatening Izumizaka High's safety. I would never think that after so many years, the school went down to such a state…"

"Although I don't know much about the past of Izumizaka High, but if there's trouble I'll be the first one to supress it!" was what Takeshi's thinking when Junpei commented that the school has gone to such a mess.

Meanwhile at Aya's home, Aiko was sipping some cold drink that Aya gave her, and talked about the happenings in Izumizaka High.

"Did you know that there's a modern Battousai in our school?" Aiko asked Aya.
"I've never heard of a modern Battousai before, but I've heard about a famous crime-buster student last year from one of the middle schools around here. It seems like this person has two knives on his waist." Aya said, recollecting what happened last year.
"The modern Battousai I've seen before also has two big knives hung on his belt too!" Aiko reported.
Just then, the two women seemed to find a connection between what happened a year ago and the incident with the gangsters days ago.
"Is it possible that… the crime-buster student… is what you called the 'Modern Battousai'…?" Aya shockingly asked. "By the way, did you know his real name?"
"I think it's called Kitahara something…" Aiko answered. "…and if I'm correct, he's also in this mentorship project too…"
"So do you know who his mentor is?" Aya asked again, seemingly concerned about this Kitahara person.
Aiko thought for a while, then answered a name that sound too familiar to her: Manaka Junpei.
This made Aya speechless and surprised.

"Manaka-kun…" Aya thought about her crush for many years. And in fact, she still hasn't gotten over him even until now.

Back at the park, silence envelops both Junpei and Takeshi, but it was Junpei who breaks the silence by offering his hand for a handshake. But just at this moment…

"Help! Robbery!" a voice screamed from outside the park.
Someone is getting away to the main road with a woman's handbag and hopped onto a motorcycle in an attempt to escape the scene. Both Takeshi and Junpei heard the woman's screams and ran towards her.

"Takeshi-kun, I'll try to find information while you catch the one on the motorcycle." Junpei instructed him.
Takeshi nodded, and immediately went to the main road where the motorcycle is escaping on.

"That robber took my handbag and went off in a motorcycle!" the woman said to Junpei while crying. Junpei immediately relayed the message to Takeshi, and alerted him about the motorcycle that went out has the woman's handbag.
Upon hearing that, Takeshi draws both his KaiXuan Blades and joins their handle ends together.

"Wow! This is good material…!" thought Junpei as he quickly prepares his camcorder for filming.

With his combined blade, Takeshi throws it like a boomerang and the blade spins quickly while moving at a very fast speed towards the motorcycle. While the robber and the runner on the motorcycle sees through its rear mirror that something is approaching very quickly, they start to panic and quickly raised their legs just in time for the double-sided blade to rip through the motorcycle into two parts, causing it to explode and push both of them nearer to Takeshi's location.

Just at this time, Takeshi has gathered his energy and his eyes turned blood red, which sends thunder through his right arm and generates a ball of energy on the palm of his right hand. He grabs the energy and this enhances his power to attack.

"Earth Crusher!"

Takeshi punches the road with all the power in his right hand, and the ground starts to tremble and crack towards the two baddies who stole the woman's handbag. When the crack reaches them, a brown earth-made knuckle drives out, hitting the two baddies further towards Takeshi. And at this time, the joined blade has returned to him and immediately dashes forward for another blade technique.

"Shipuuzan!" (Whirlwind Slash)

Takeshi spins his combined blade while dashing, causing a human-sized hurricane to form around him. When the hurricane reaches the baddies, he directs the hurricane upwards which lifted them and slices them at the same time. This lasts for ninety seconds, and Takeshi immediately jumps right through the baddies while slashing them with his combined blade. When he finishes his move, the baddies remained motionless, then they fell the moment Takeshi withdraws his blades back to their holders.

All these actions were recorded into Junpei's camcorder without Takeshi knowing it (in fact, Junpei started recording the minute Takeshi draws his blades!).

Minutes later, the police arrived at the scene and arrested the robber and his runner for robbing the woman's handbag. The woman thanked Takeshi and Junpei, together with the police officers, for returning her handbag.

After the incident, both Junpei and Takeshi walked together as their homes are on the same direction. But they are deep in thought. Junpei is thinking of the scene he recorded, while Takeshi is thinking why he got paired up with Junpei in the first place.

"That was powerful…! The moves… the techniques… everything! Just like the crime-buster I saw last year!" thought Junpei.
"Why the heck do I have to be mentored by him in the first place…?" thought Takeshi.

End of Chapter 04