Chapter 1, Part 5 / Intertwining Fates Sealed Within Interchangeable Motions


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It went exactly how one would imagine it.

To skip a few details, Murasame found himself on the ground once again with Haruto's dagger-filled glares piercing his back. It took a resounding two minutes to get to this point and that was being nice. Subtracting all of the blind flailing and outstanding dialogue Murasame was making during their supposed fight, it probably marked up to a total of twenty seconds at best. In reality, all Haruto had to do was take a few steps forwards and slam his baton over Murasame's head repeatedly until he was knocked down like this.

It was… almost too easy, thus explaining the suspicious stare that Haruto was giving.

"... What the hell are you planning?"

"Wh-What do you mean…?" Murasame was breathing heavily, trying to get back up on his feet. Normally, a villain might kick the protagonist while they were down, but Haruto was so bewildered that he wasn't able to register the movement as anything dangerous at the moment. "We're fighting, aren't we? I'm showing you what my strength as a shinobi can be!"

"No. No, we are not. This isn't even close to a fight. This is a one-sided beatdown."

"Heh." Despite his bruises, Murasame still laughed. "Is that what you think?"

"It's… what I currently think. I can't possibly figure out why you would be losing this badly, but if you do have a real plan behind this mindless beating you're choosing to take, I should probably try and make you cough it right up."

Haruto glanced over to Isayuki, thinking it might have been one distraction, but all Isayuki was doing was cheering on Murasame even harder.

"C'mon, Mister Murasame! You got this! You're holding back because you've got a plan, right!? It's got to be an amazing plan, I'm sure of it!"

"... No, it couldn't be."

Seeing the innocent shouts of the boy made Haruto consider other potential options, but he couldn't figure out what Murasame was up to. At least, it certainly didn't sound like Isayuki could keep aligned with any plans that his current enemy could cook up, but when he looked back, he saw a sickle flying right towards him.

"Where are your eyes looking at!? Your opponent is me!"

Unfortunately, the sickle did not go far enough to reach Haruto.

A state of suspicion and contempt filled his mind.

"What are you planning with this poor excuse of a farce, Murasame Houou? I'd thought to spend some time having you exert the best of your abilities, only for me to defeat you in combat, but…" Haruto leered down at the sickle, waggling around from Murasame trying to move it using the attached chains. "I can say for certain that this wasn't what I had in mind."

Haruto started growling, furrowing his brows at the assailant.

"Wait, are you looking down on me? Are you purposely not using the full extent of your strength?"

"Why don't you see for yourself!?"

After a few failed attempts, Murasame used the chain to bounce his sickle up towards Haruto. It looked as if it was going to hit him, but it was… a bit too slow. It was slow enough that Haruto caught the sickle's handle from out of the air. He looked at it, slowly processed the situation, and immediately pulled hard on it to force Murasame to close in.

"H-hey, wait!"

Haruto winded up his baton and slapped it across Murasame's face. He brought it back to clap it against his cheek and thrusted it forward into Murasame's stomach, as if to stab him like a sword. HAruto switched on his taser, shocking Murasame with a large amount of volts.

"Grah!"

"Mister Murasame!"

And while he looked rather incompetent in the moment, Haruto noticed that his shock didn't do as much as he predicts. Murasame held enough consciousness to tuck on his chain to get his sickle back and back off by leaping away. Murasamelooked slightly unsteady on his feet, but Haruto wasn't sure if it was an act. Obviously, all of this was strange to the man, unease at the reasoning behind it.

Of course, Haruto didn't realize that Murasame was actually incompetent.

A bit of a spoiler, but he would likely not realize this for the entirety of the fight, but whatever. It didn't change the fact that Murasame's back was up against the wall before it even began and while Haruto thought there might have been a hidden door behind said wall, ready to activate when he least expected it, Isayuki was trying his best to understand what was happening.

"Mister Murasame…?"

None of the shinobis were looking at him properly since even they were distraught at the suspicious activity of the duel, but he stood there within his own thoughts.

"There's no way that Mister Murasame could be losing this fight…"

While Haruto's lack of realization came from suspicion, Isayuki's lack of realization stemmed from disbelief. He couldn't accept the fact that this smart and heroic person was getting beaten up for no reason and frankly, he tried to mull over why this situation was happening.

"There has to be something he's planning…!"

What could it be?

Isayuki gritted his teeth as Murasame tried another assault. He ran forwards, haphazardly spinning the sickle and the weight in both hands. Murasame threw them out to hit Haruto, but all he did was take a single step to dodge both of them and in the process, the chains on the sickle and the weight crossed each other and tied themselves together.

Haruto poked his baton next to its intersection and tugged, causing Murasame to stumble forwards. With deft movements, he pulled out his baton and kicked Murasame back, causing him to fall right back to the ground. The evil shinobis glanced at the one-sided fight, scoffing a bit at the play they were witnessing. It seemed like only Haruto had his doubts on the matter.

All Isayuki felt like doing was staying there, hoping that Murasame could still turn it around, but he realized that had been the problem that led to his initial capture here. If Murasame never came by, he would still be waiting idly in his prison cell.

What did that mean?

The moment Murasame stole a glance over to Isayuki, everything started to fall into place. Considering that Murasame seemed to be a big advocate for causing distractions, Isayuki figured that this was one of those moments of distractions. In other words, he was pulling everyone's attention towards himself, such that Isayuki could be the one to bail them both out of here.

Of course, this thought process was triggered by Murasame randomly glancing over to Isayuki. Murasame didn't actually account for anything that Isayuki perceived, but that didn't stop Isayuki into scouting the area around him to see if there was anything he could do.

He was tied up, but his legs were still free. There wasn't anything stopping him from walking away, but he thought that the evil shinobis would notice almost immediately if he were to move.

"The bag of things that Mister Murasame gave to me is a bit too far away, but…"

His eyes landed on something that was closer.

It was the pistol that the shinobis knocked out of Murasame's hand. He wasn't sure how it could be used, but if he could get it back to Murasame, it could be what the man was waiting for.

After Murasame tried once more to be on the offensive, only to pathetically fail and get knocked back again, Isayuki made his run. The evil shinobis noticed a second too late, but still gave chase to stop him in his tracks. Revving up his foot, he swung a kick to the pistol to send it over to Murasame.

"Mister Murasame! Catch!"

"Huh!? What do you mean by that!?"

… Of course, Murasame wasn't expecting any of that.

He failed to react quickly as the pistol literally bounced into his gut. With buttery fingers, he tried to catch it, but he ended up dropping it. Haruto was prepared to close in quickly in case the gun was turned on him, but considering the panic on Murasame's face, he didn't feel like he should be in a rush.

However, the gun managed to discharge and fire when it slammed on the ground—

—right into the shinobis that were going to recapture Isayuki.

They quickly backed off, as Isayuki noticed the possible chain reaction. Now that he was closer to the bag, Isayuki leapt over to that direction and opened the distance between him and his pursuers.

… Now that he was here, he wasn't sure what to do. He didn't think he would get this far, if he had to be honest. He had a few seconds to figure out the next step before the shinobis could reach him.

"Just send it over to me already!"

"Uh, alright!"

Burying his foot underneath the bag, Isayuki put his force into his kick and carried the bag of canisters right over to Murasame. However, its open state caused the incendies, smokescreens and flashbangs to go flying all over the place. Although it was disorganized, Haruto wasn't going to let a single one pass and closed the gap to stop Murasame.

"I see! So this was your plan all along!

"Damn it!"

"Ah! Mister Murasame!"

Despite being further away, Isayuki picked up an intense acceleration and before anyone in the room knew it, Isayuki was right next to Haruto. He jumped and threw both of his feet outwards.

"I got you!"

"What!? You're that fast!?"

Haruto managed to block the attack, but the impact still sent him away. Isayuki couldn't land back on his feet, crashing right in front of Murasame. It gave Murasame some time to catch whatever remaining canisters, but he managed to miss every single one of them. He played it off by glancing down at Isayuki with a frown.

"You… You could have told me that you were quick. That would have made things far easier, but no, you decided to wait for now to do so."

"I didn't realize that I was fast," Isayuki wryly laughed. "My body moved like that before I had a chance to realize it for myself…"

"Gah… Stop fooling around!"

Using his sickle, he sliced off the restraints on the young man, but the shinobis weren't going to make it easy. They closed in on the pair, but Murasame acted quickly. He grabbed a nearby incendiary and pulled the pin, tossing it up into the space between them. It exploded into a brief wall of flames, buying them a few seconds as Murasame got Isayuki free, but it wasn't enough to stop them.

Murasame stumbled over after they got too close.

"Kid! Punch them or something!"

"Got it, Mister Murasame!"

Isayuki spun himself back onto his feet and clenched his fist just as a shinobi got into range. With one heave, Isayuki unleashed his punch. Murasame widened his eyes, hearing something cracking as Isayuki sent them flying into a wall.

"... What the fuck?"

"... Holy shit."

It would appear that Murasame and Haruto were both on the same wavelength.

The sudden turmoil of strength dazed them as the rest of the shinobis tried to follow up on their comrade's defeat. Although they backed up a bit, they fired off shurikens and kunais at Isayuki, forcing Murasame to act when he saw that the young man hadn't been dodging.

"Get down, you idiot!"

"Wha—!?"

Whelping like a dog as Murasame pushed down Isayuki, the shinobis bounced right back for a second strike. Frantically grabbing the nearest canister, Murasame threw it out to them, hoping for a flashbang. Unfortunately, it was a smokescreen, causing a visual barrier between both parties.

That wasn't going to stop the shinobis.

"Punch them again!"

Being stirred in the same type of panic Murasame was sending off, Isayuki quickly got on his feet and blindly threw out his punches again. Two shinobis came out of the shroud at the most convenient timing, allowing Isayuki to send them right back into their allies.

Murasame found the flashbang he was looking for at his feet, so he picked it up and chucked it into the smokescreen. He knew it would still cause blindness through the barrier, so he turned Isayuki's face away as it went off. Murasame heard the blinded grunts coming from the shinobis.

The smokescreen cleared up, leaving the shinobis defenseless. Picking up his sickle and weight again, Murasame pointed at them for Isayuki.

"C'mon, kid! Let's take them down!"

Isayuki followed Murasame's lead, chasing the shinobis. Erhm, it would be more correct to say Isayuki chased them. While Murasame defeated two of the shinobis that were easily reachable, Isayuki easily knocked down the rest in the same amount of time. It took a mere punch from Isayuki to knock them out and it left the two of them as the last two remaining people standing.

Excluding Haruto, that is.

"Well, well. I see that the girl we captured really was a shinobi, after all. I was starting to have doubts, but I see that my initial thoughts were correct."

"A girl?" Isayuki glanced at Murasame. "Who is he talking about?"

"... I wouldn't worry about it."

"And, uh, what's a shinobi?"

"... I wouldn't worry about that one either."

Frankly, Murasame's thoughts were simply running on only thinking about their possible escape, omitting anything else that his mind deemed unnecessary to answer. Haruto was already getting his mind back into a real fight, spinning his baton around to a readied stance, so Murasame had to do the same.

Isayuki merely stood there, slightly baffled, before realizing something.

"Hey, wait a minute! You're the guy who knocked me out!"

"..."

"..."

The grimacing expression on both Murasame and Haruto both confirmed that they were thinking the same thing.

How did it take this long for Isayuki to figure that one out?

"Enough of this horseplay."

Haruto activated the electricity through his baton.

"Even if you are a shinobi, you'll find that you'll have some difficulty dealing with me. I'm a person who studied their movements and teachings in order to effectively fight back against them whenever I needed to do so! In other words, I'm your worst match-up!"

Oh, little did poor Haruto know.

"You might have been able to deal with our hired shinobis, because they were simply there for the manpower. They're a dime a dozen in the world of evil shinobis. If you want true strength, you're facing it right now." Haruto glanced at Murasame. "You might want to stop holding back, or else you might die."

"Don't be stupid! Look at the situation! It's two versus one!" Murasame spat. "You would be better off giving up instead of fighting through this!"

"Oh? Then I suppose it might be a fairer fight."

"Huh?"

Haruto almost disappeared like the wind and within a split second, he showed up right in front of Isayuki's blank blinking. Since he wasn't in any stances, Haruto landed a clean kick and sent the young man flying, bouncing off against the ground as Murasame looked in shock.

"Gaa!"

"Kid!"

"You're next!"

Haruto swung his baton at Murasame and through adrenaline, he threw up his hands to block the attack with the chain in between. Sparks flew around as Murasame dropped his sickle to dangle it before his foot and kicked it. It was a light swing, nowhere near the force needed to cause a grave injury, but Haruto took precaution and backed away.

However, Isayuki returned back with a punch which was blocked by Haruto's baton. Because of that, electricity ran right through Isayuki's body, stiffening his muscles. Murasame stumbled forwards to catch his sickle and dash forwards to assist Isayuki, but Haruto fired an elbow behind him to knock Murasame backwards. In a matter of moments, Haruto took back his baton and struck both Murasame and Isayuki, hurling them across the room together.

"M-Mister Murasame…? Are you alright…?"

"That is not the goddamn question we should be asking right now!"

"Wh-What should I be asking then?"

Murasame was starting to think that Ikaruga wasn't going to get here on time. They would probably be half-beaten to death by the time she got here and all things considered, Murasame would like to avoid that if possible. That wasn't even including the restrained time limit of this supposed Lady Kasuga that would certainly arrive before his sister at this point.

Honestly? At this point, one opening might turn the tides of the fight, but that was only if they could find one.

Murasame grunted as he got up on his feet at the same time as Isayuki.

"Do you seriously not know how to fight?"

"That was my first time throwing out a punch! I didn't know I had that much power behind it!"

"It would certainly explain your lack of intuition when it comes to dodging."

"Dodging? Should I be dodging…?"

Murasame stammered over his words, being flabbergasted. "Wha—!? Do you think you should be taking those attacks for no reason!? If you can move out of the way to avoid contact from them, you should do it! Nobody is looking to get hit like that!"

"You've been getting hit this entire time!"

"That's… All of that was on purpose! It was to lower their guard!"

"Ah! Right! I should have known that! I didn't mean to get knocked away like that, so I'm the one at fault here! I'm so sorry, Mister Murasame!"

"And at least get into a stance when you're in a fight! You look like a lost child right now!"

"A stance?"

Isayuki's hair antenna frazzled, looking like it was panicking from the overloaded information.

"Put your hands in front of yourself! That way, you can actually punch quicker and easier!"

"Okay, I can do that!"

As Isayuki held his clenched fist before his head, Muraame groaned as he got back into his stance. He had never played babysitter in the middle of a fight before, so this was a new experience.

While Murasame can part with the basic knowledge of fighting, it wasn't as if he could execute it easily himself. He always thought that the theory behind combat was far easier than actually performing it for himself, though he wouldn't admit that fact to anyone.

That was why he knew that if they kept playing defensively, they would be defeated.

"Alright, kid. Listen up. I've got a plan!"

"I'm listening!"

"Keep that guy occupied! And leave the rest of it to me!"

Isayuki didn't understand what was happening, but he nodded anyways.

"Got it!"

"Don't lie. I can see the dumbfoundedness on your face."

"Ahaha…"

"Don't laugh! Just keep attacking that guy for me! You'll be the distraction!"

"Okay! That one, I understand!"

All in the meanwhile, one might ask what Haruto was doing as the pair had been conversing between themselves. As a matter of fact, they were speaking very loudly, so Haruto was simply dismayed at what he was eavesdropping on. He had no idea what to make of it. Really, this entire fight was a weird experience for the man, so give him a break for letting this opportunity slide by.

"Are you two done yet? I'd like to get this resolved before Lady Kasuga arrives and—"

Just as Haruto was breaking it off, Isayuki disappeared and reappeared just as Haruto did.

It surprised the man, causing him to take a step back and making Isayuki's punch to whiff.

"Ugh! I almost got him!"

"You're going to have to try a little harder to catch me like that!" Haruto spun his baton and firmly tightened his grip. "And that's going to be your closest attempt here!"

"Mister Murasame is counting on me, so I can't fail here!"

"Look, I know you're serving as the distraction, so I won't spare you much of my—"

Suddenly, Isayuki picked up the pace on his punches. A flurry of fists rapidly fired towards Haruto, outright forcing him to stay on the defensive.

"What!? That was too close!"

Haruto was really surprised at how fast Isayuki could be.

"Don't tell me…! Getting yourself captured was part of Murasame's plan as well! You're hiding far more power than I could anticipate!"

"Mister Murasame! Do what you need to do!"

Isayuki turned the tables and placed Haruto on the ropes. He couldn't, however, deal any serious blows. Haruto was simply faster than him, narrowly avoiding all of his attacks, but Murasame couldn't care what Isayuki was doing. If anything, he just wanted to leave right now, but that wouldn't finish off whatever crazy experiment that was being planned here.

Murasame quickly ran across the wide room, picking up the dropped pistol in the process. Once he got close enough to the test tube with the child inside of it, he aimed the barrel and fired the fourth shot.

The bullet did nothing.

… It turned out that the test tube was bulletproof.

"I want to laugh, but I'd feel like that would be kicking myself in the gut."

He holstered the gun as he noticed a terminal. He made his way over there to see if there was any method to disrupt the process from there and almost immediately, Haruto took notice of his actions.

"Damn it! Get away from there!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!"

"That line doesn't work here!"

Haruto tried to escape Isayuki to attack Murasame, but Isayuki dashed over to block his way. Haruto, gritting his teeth, thrusted his baton into Isayuki, but taking Murasame's quick lesson into account, Isayuki narrowly dodged the attack. One after the other, Isayuki managed to avoid all of Haruto's attacks, but he was losing ground against him and they were coming closer to Murasame.

All the while, Murasame had been hacking away at the computer.

The keycard for the terminal had been left right on the table next to it. Haruto must have not predicted things would turn out this way, carelessly leaving the key nearby. Whatever the reason, Murasame quickly scanned through the files and programs, finding software that was attached to the current test tubes.

According to the software, it looked like the two test tubes, the one containing the child and the one containing the scythe, were connected to each other, but what the function had been was too vague for him to determine on the stop. At the very least, the activation of the scythe would trigger off of the blood and lifeforce of whoever had been sacrificed to it. Murasame clicked his tongue in disgust, realizing this was some fucked-up occult ritual that would kill the child in the process, only being more high-tech and scientific.

It didn't matter to him though, since all he needed to do was disrupt the project as much as he could, but—

"You're too slow!"

"Aah!"

Haruto broke through Isayuki's defenses, landing a strike to stagger him, and darted right through to reach Murasame. A swinging baton slammed into the man, launching him back to the test tubes. Once there, Haruto grabbed his keycard and locked the terminal to ensure that Murasame wouldn't pull something like that again.

"What happened to the distraction!?"

"I'm sorry!"

Murasame only had two shots left, but Haruto was wide open. Pulling out his pistol, he tried shooting it with Haruto on sight, but he dodged it preemptively as it fired. Haruto struck Murasame on his hand, forcing the release of the gun into the air, then knocked Murasame out from the test tubes' area.

He caught the gun on its descent, but seeing that Murasame was on the ground, Isayuki rushed in to lend assistance, not realizing what the threat of a gun could do in the right hands. All this time, all five previous bullets missed and for its sixth and final shot, Haruto aimed the gun over into Isayuki's path.

"I didn't want to do this if unneeded, but you're being more of a nuisance than what I wanted. To be fair, you were only considered to be an unplanned extra, so losing you won't hinder us in the slightest."

"Huh?"

"Take a long rest. And don't wake up."

The bullet fired, piercing right through Isayuki's heart. Blood dripped out from his wound while he felt immeasurable pain spilling from his body.

"Wha…?"

Isayuki stumbled a bit before collapsing on his back.

Murasame was still groaning from the knockback, but when he heard the shot being fired, he glanced over to see Isayuki bleeding out on the ground. It was like time was standing still and while Murasame didn't have any personal attachment to the young man, there was a sour taste in having someone die within his own directives.

That thought lasted for a few seconds as Haruto turned the gun over to Murasame.

"One down. I'll deal with you another way, since I was ordered to keep you alive."

"You think I'll start listening to you?"

"I'm the one with the gun here. I don't think you have the liberty to decide."

"..."

Murasame realized that Haruto didn't know the gun's chamber was empty. This was definitely an upper advantage Murasame could use, but the question was how to capitalize on it.

He could try and buy time, but how much longer will that bluff do for him? All Haruto needed to do to wipe away his defiance is to pull the trigger and figure out the gun was empty without Murasame gaining a further advantage.

He could act scared and submit to Haruto, but that would risk being captured again using restraints that he may not be able to unravel. It wouldn't last long enough for him to pull on his chain and get his sickle back into his hands, not that he had any chance of beating Haruto.

Then what could he do?

He tried looking around for ideas without tipping off Haruto, but his eyes were far more perspective than Murasame's. Using the butt of the gun, he slammed Murasame's head to the ground.

"I'm not giving you anymore time to figure out a plan out of this. I'll hold you here as long as I need to, until Lady Kasuga arrives. She'll probably have bodyguards with her, so I'll pass this hostaging task to them since all of my extra hands right now are unconscious thanks to the both of you."

"Ugh…"

"Don't tell me you want to actually end up like your little companion over there."

"Damn you…"

As Murasame tried to look up, his eyes stopped along Haruto's feet.

There was a mysterious sight there.

Chains were starting to circle around Haruto's legs without him noticing, but Murasame didn't think it was his own chains. The ends holding the sickle and the weight had been flung over to his right with no traces of their presence elsewhere.

"What could that…?"

"Hmm…?"

Between Haruto's legs, Murasame noticed a figure standing back up from the ground. It should have been impossible, but everything so far concerning the boy had flashed back in his memory. The fact that he took a kunai on the shoulder, the fact that he survived through the manor's traps, even the fact that he shook off drowning in a river like it was nothing…

And yet, there was nothing of evidence to show for the injuries and dilemmas he had been. It was like it hadn't happened at all, other than the attitude of going through those problems.

The bullet basically popped out of Isayuki's heart and landed on the ground, causing a metallic noise to echo through the room. Haruto looked over his shoulder perplexingly, seeing that the wound had simply… disappeared. As if it healed completely in the matter of moments.

"How… How are you still standing…?"

"That…"

Isayuki aimed his hands towards Haruto as the unknown chains Murasame noticed started moving by themselves. His fresh blood converged into his hands and in the next second, a solid chain appeared right between Isayuki and Haruto's legs.

"Wait, this is—!?"

"That really hurts!"

Haruto couldn't pull the gun's trigger in time as Isayuki heaved the chains over his shoulder and flung Haruto into the ground on the other side.

"Grah!"

It still took a lot out of Isayuki, heavily breathing as Haruto was coming to terms as to what was happening, but Murasame used the chance to get back into his position. Pulling back his sickle and weight, he approached Isayuki with a slight headache.

"Today's been a surprising day concerning you, hasn't it?"

"Surprising? How?"

"People usually die when they get shot like that, but you…"

Murasame glanced over to look at the wound and the blood on the ground. It was real, but the closed bullethole was real as well.

"Really? I… don't feel any different, except it still really hurts. Wait, am I dead!?"

It was a darn shame that his head wasn't as fast as his unnatural recovery, but Murasame remembered that he started out, not realizing that drowning was bad. Memories or not, that was likely an instinctive thought before Murasame overwrote it, namely because of that crazy regeneration.

Although, Murasame wasn't a fool to think that it came without limitations. It looked as if Isayuki was genuinely feeling the lingering pain of the bullet, wincing while holding his chest. Maybe the regeneration was unlimited, but his pain threshold had its bounds.

Wait, but doesn't this effectively make the kid immortal?

His chains were still everpresent, returning back to Isayuki to wrap around his arms to intimate Murasame in a way, but it left Haruto alone to get back up on his feet. Seeing this, Murasame held up his sickle and prompted Isayuki to return to his two-handed stance.

"Hahaha… HAHAHAHA!"

However, Murasame didn't expect Haruto to have a villainous laugh.

"What are the odds!? To think I'd be the person to revive Project IK because of such a fateful encounter! I would have never thought this is how it would turn out! I might even get a promotion after this!"

"Project IK…" Murasame remembered seeing the name in the information he copied onto the SD card, but brushed it aside to deal with the man's ramblings. "What the hell are you going on about!?"

"Murasame Houou. You had Project IK right next to you this entire time and something tells me that you didn't even know it, but…"

Haruto paused for a bit.

"... Isn't Project IK supposed to be a male?"

Murasame bit his lips.

Was that really so important to point out so randomly in the middle of a fight?

"Oh, forget it," Haruto grumbled. "Male or not, I only know of one entity that can heal themselves back from injuries, then use that injury to activate their true weapon…"

Murasame felt like he had just read something about that and he glanced over to the scythe. In fact, it might have been an exact retelling of that little blurb of documentation, but Isayuki hadn't been holding a scythe. Then what exactly was this true weapon Haruto was talking about…?

"If I present you to Lady Kasuga, she can push Project IK back onto the horizons!"

"I don't know what the hell you're going on about, but—!"

Murasame dashed forwards, spinning his kusarigama wildly.

"You can just go to hell!"

Haruto confidentially aimed the gun right down to Murasame.

"Oh!? Try me!"

The angle had been projected to hit Murasame's leg, but it didn't matter. The moment Haruto pulled the trigger, an empty click came from the chamber. He widened his eyes, knowing he wasted the precious seconds that allowed Murasame to get close.

The one opening that Murasame needed has arrived.

"You're wide open!"

"Tsk!"

"Hein Hosen, Mode Zero!"

He started releasing the sickle and the weight into the air to extend his effective range, swinging them all around him as he spun like a top towards his opponent. Haruto managed to back off, causing Murasame to end up tying himself with the chains once again.

"Is that all you've got? I won't fall for your tricks this time!"

"You think I'm finished!?"

Pushing out with his legs, he jumped right into Haruto's chest, headbutting him with his thick skull. Haruto gasped for air, not reacting to the kamikaze-like move properly, but it made Murasame fall over onto the ground. Being dazed by the sudden attack, Murasame shouted to Isayuki.

They had this single chance to end it.

"Kid! I don't know how you're using those chains, but do something with them!"

"Yes, Mister Murasame!"

Isayuki looked at his hand and nodded. He extended it out to Haruto and put pressure onto his arm. Without any second thoughts, his chains acted as if they were alive and heeded his commands, flying through the air to capture Haruto in a similar binding as Murasame.

This must have been the reason why Murasame wrapped himself up in those chains, to show Isayuki what he needed to do without saying it out loud! Or so Isayuki perceived Murasame's self-capture, but while even on the ground, Murasame had a perfect sight of Haruto. He struggled to get the chains off, but if Isayuki left it like that, the battle was never going to end.

"Kid!" he shouted violently. "This guy's been messing with us for far too long! Give him a thousand punches for punishment!"

"Got it, Mister Murasame!"

Isayuki grabbed onto the chains and pulled Haruto over to him.

"Shit!"

With both hands clenched, Isayuki unleashed his command.

"Here I come! One thousand punches!"

The first few punches had been slow, but one he got into the habit of it, the number drastically started to fly up. His fists were soaring through the air, pounding against Haruto's body all over the place, but the knockback hadn't been present because the held chains were keeping him there. Hand after hand, fist over fist, Isayuki was going so fast that his after-images couldn't keep up.

Murasame managed to unravel himself from his own chains in the process, merely staring at Isayuki's attacks in awe. Murasame had legitimately said a random number to sound cool, but he didn't actually think Isayuki would go up to one thousand, but in the process, Isayuki started grunted.

"Uhm, how much is a thousand, Mister Murasame!?"

It was a weird question to have during this situation, especially with the poor enemy foaming in his mouth from the endless onslaught, but Murasame rolled with it.

"It doesn't matter! It's already enough! Just give him one final, strong punch and bury him into the ground!"

"Yes, Mister Murasame!"

After the final assault, Isayuki pulled back his fist, but the chains had accidentally released Haruto from his constraints. He was still dazed, but his consciousness still held on, trying to leap through the air to get away from the Isayuki.

"Damn it, I won't... be defeated here!"

Isayuki was focusing on his punch and left everything else slipped through. Haruto wasn't going to be defeated if he retreated now, so Murasame wasn't going to let him. He spun his weight and blindly tossed it where Haruto was going to be and through some miracle, his weight wrapped around Haruto.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere!"

He tugged on the chain, forcefully bringing Haruto down to the ground. His chains were undone, but Isayuki closed the gap with his fist flying forwards. Distressed, Haruto brought up his baton to intercept the attack and the two forces collided. He turned on the electricity, causing Isayuki's body to weaken, but Murasame noticed a convenient flashbang nearby.

Pulling the pin, he made one last throw.

"Finish this, kid! Hit him with everything you've got!"

The flashbang flew right behind Isayuki and exploded into light, blinding Haruto, but keeping Isayuki's eyes safe. He couldn't help but flinch in its sight and that caused Haruto to retract his baton slightly, giving Isayuki his opening.

"Take this!"

His fist slipped right through, smashing up against Haruto's face and Isayuki swung forward to bring both of them to the ground. The impact caused the ground to explode into smoke and debris, making Murasame wince. He felt the impact from a distance, so he wouldn't want to imagine the type of injury he left on Haruto.

"Crazy… A goddamn monster of some sort… It's a damn good thing he's on my side."

Smoke was building up as a visible crater was left in the room.

"Is it finished?"

"Gah!"

Isayuki cried as he abruptly flew backwards from the smoke, crashing into Murasame.

"Oh. Thanks for catching me."

"That wasn't…!" Murasame groaned in pain, but he shook his head. "Ugh. You know what? Never mind. That is the least of my concerns here."

A punch like that shouldn't have sent Isayuki backwards with such force. As the smoke cleared up, Murasame noticed a figure standing up and walking towards them.

"Wh-what? Th-that wasn't enough? Are you kidding me!?"

"Ah! I'm sorry! I thought I put everything I had in that attack, but I don't think that finished it!"

"Then get up and swing again!"

"Ahaha… I, uh, can't feel anything in my body. I think I put too much power in that punch, so I'll be down for… a few moments?"

"You're kidding me!?"

As he mentioned it, Murasame noticed the broken bones, the bruises and the bleeding along Isayuki's knuckles. It looked like it was recovering already, but it didn't change the fact that he was suffering through something very uncomfortable in his hands.

"You… You two…!"

"Get up, get up, get up! Hurry!"

"As much as I want to…"

Haruto walked forward slowly, unable to move in a straight line.

"You shouldn't think… that you can keep hiding Project IK from our operations… for much longer…! For whatever reason you're doing so! I'm technically only a grunt, so if… one of the directors is able to hear about your involvement in the situation…"

His gaze was intense.

"You're as good as dead, Murasame Houou!"

"I don't want to hear that from a dead man!"

Pushing Isayuki aside, Murasame ran up to Haruto with his fist. If Isayuki wasn't going to do anything about this situation, Murasame would have to swallow down his fears and take the baton from here. Puffing up his chest, he shouted back at Haruto.

"How about you shut up already and accept your loss!?"

Haruto couldn't move out of the way and got hit with Murasame's punch. It was severely weaker than anything Isayuki outputted, but it was the final drop into the filled glass that caused it to overflow. Haruto stumbled backwards and collapsed, knocking out for good.

Murasame's heart started calming down once he realized that Haruto was finally defeated, albeit in an anti-climatic way. No complaints were coming from him though.

"Amazing…!" Isayuki whispered loudly. "I attacked him so many times and he was still standing, but all you did was hit him once and you defeated him!"

"Of… Of course! I'm just that strong!" Murasame stammered, trying to play it off while his nose was growing longer by the second.

"Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

Murasame gulped.

"... I, uh, wanted you to learn for yourself. You said you didn't know how to fight, right? Now after this little encounter of ours, you can defend yourself."

"Oh, uh, thank you, Mister Murasame!"

However, the job wasn't done yet.

Murasame walked up to Haruto's body and took back the keycard to access the terminal once again. This time, he was able to disable and stop the experiment from its command, but he could only release the child. It seemed like Haruto hadn't been bluffing when he said he was a grunt, considering his keycard only permitted the observation of the scythe. Trying to delete it prompted him with a requirement of higher clearance.

"Whatever, this is fine too."

The water drained out from the test tube, sinking the child to the bottom. Isayuki got his strength back to stand up and headed over. Murasame waited until the system gave him a green light.

"Alright, let's get this kid out of the test tube and get out of here. I don't think we have much longer until a possible enemy comes through that door."

"Are you sure?"

"What…?" Murasame frowned. "You're the one to suggest coming here."

"Erhm…"

Isayuki sweated, looking between his hand and the glass. While it was back to full recovery, Isayuki looked like he was resigning himself to something.

"O-okay then, if that's what you want."

"Wait, what are you—?"

Isayuki tightened his fist and punched the test tube, shattering it into pieces. The child was alright, but Isayuki's hand had been severely bleeding from the puncturing glass.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

Murasame stared emptily between the scene before him and the terminal screen, as there was only a few seconds left until the button to safely open up the test tube opened up for a click.

"I guess we didn't need that…"

Murasame walked over to check on the child, or rather he checked up on Isayuki on checking up on the child. Or really, he stood around to make sure that the child woke up, seeing Murasame's face and thinking to himself that he helped out in the saving.

Although, it was still very eerie to him how Isayuki was regenerating his bloodied hand back to perfect state and acting like it was normal. He was still shaking it, as if its stinging remained, but his attention diverted back to the child. Isayuki knelt down, trying to wake him up.

"Hey, Kei. Can you hear me? Are you alright, Kei?"

"He looks like he's breathing normally," Murasame said, "but once we get out of here, I'll have him sent over to the hospital. It's the least I could do."

Isayuki's face paled. "Huh? You're going to be sending Kei to such a scary place?"

"For the last time, they were just doing their jobs."

Kei started to come to his senses, opening his eyes a bit upon hearing the voices. Murmuring in a daze, Isayuki smiled to see that Kei was holding up fine.

"Isa… yuki…?"

"Yep, it's me. I'd told you that I would come help you out, right?" Isayuki wryly scratched his head as he pointed to Murasame. "Well, I guess I couldn't have done it by myself. Mister Murasame carried most of the weight and helped with the rescue. We even took care of the bad guy!"

"Ah… Thank you…"

Kei gently glanced over to Murasame, but Isayuki's gentle voice set a mood that prevented Murasame from saying any of his usual lines. For now, a mere scoff to show how little work he thought of the entire situation might give him a cool factor.

However, Kei looked at Murasame for a bit longer than needed.

"That man… looks almost like… her…"

"Almost like who now?"

Without finishing his thought, Kei went back to sleep. Although he hadn't been exerting himself, that test tube might have been draining his energy to the point where even escaping from its chamber didn't allow its victim to escape its lingering after-effects.

"Oh, whatever."

Murasame sighed, stepping forward to bring Kei into his arms. He returned his kusarigama back into a ninja scroll and pocketed it beforehand.

"I'll carry this child out."

He wasn't doing it out of the willingness out of his heart though, but it was a good bonus if he was the one looking like a hero at the end of this. Murasame glanced over to the second test tube containing the scythe. If they left now, there was still the chance that the experiment would remain active if that was still in their hands.

"Since you went ahead and broke the glass, why don't you do it once more against that one?"

"H-hey, Mister Murasame. You know it hurts, right?"

"Less talking, more punching."

"... Right."

Isayuki sighed without further complaints and approached the second test tube with a tightening fist, but when he stopped in front of it, his hand started to relax as his eyes pulled themselves to the weapon. There wasn't anything stopping him, but it was as if he was frozen there.

"Kid? What's wrong?"

"Do you feel something weird about this thing here?"

Murasame frowned. "Huh? I don't feel a thing. You're probably imagining it."

Isayuki grimaced, but he trusted Murasame's judgment call. He tightened his fist once again and unleashed his attack in the same way he did to free Kei, but there had been a different result.

When the glass started shattered, Isayuki's blood spilled out the same way as before, being pricked by the sharp edges, but the blood didn't drip downwards. It floated up towards the scythe for some reason and once it made contact, the scythe started glowing.

"Uhm, Mister Murasame?"

"..."

"Is it supposed to do that?"

"Hell if I know, but I think it's about to blow up! Take cover!"

Murasame threw himself behind the terminal computer with Kei, but since he had his hands full, he had to trust that Isayuki could move out of the way before anything happened. A few seconds passed and Murasame's premonition of an explosion came true. Smoke blasted outwards from the origin as Murasame braced himself, but there was no sign that Isayuki escaped the effective radius.

"Well, that kid can apparently heal any injuries, so a point-blank explosion isn't going to make a difference…" Murasame gulped. "Would it?"

He wasn't keen on looking to see a half-blasted body, but he had to make a survey of the surrounding area to figure out what happened.

"Aaah… Aaaaaah…"

Isayuki's pained moaning came from the smoke as Murasame noticed his shadowy figure, but something was wrong. The scythe had moved. No longer was it within the glass cage, but its blade was currently impaling Isayuki through his chest.

Ragged groans desperately tried to emerge, only to be obstructed by the blood gagging him through his throat. Compared to all the other times he healed up, Isayuki started to cry with blood-curdling shrieks. Or was that even Isayuki's voice to begin with?

"Hey, uh, kid? Kid!? What's going on!?"

Murasame's voice wasn't reaching. It was being drowned out by Isayuki's deafening screams.

His eyes tried to register what was happening, but with Isayuki's voice aimed to the ceiling, the scythe was starting to glow once more. If it exploded while it was inside of Isayuki, it was going to cause a gruesome mess, but Murasame couldn't even get close, even if he wasn't a wimp.

Some sort of powerful force was being emitted from the scythe, preventing him from even moving from his place, and before he knew it, Murasame heard the scythe explode in a distorted noise, as if a heavy bass clawed its way into the audio.

He could feel the impact, even from hiding behind cover.

And then, silence.

All except the heavy breathing Murasame had.

He was tempted to look once again, but those seconds of hesitation turned into minutes. Murasame wasn't sure if he was willing to accept whatever was behind him, especially since he noticed that blood was splattered as far as where he was.

"You, uh, alright there, kid?"

Murasame's awkward question returned no answer.

Gulping, Murasame looked around the cover and—

—a distorted after-image of a slash was launched towards him. The colors seen through it were negatively altered and upon impact, it sent Murasame and Kei flying across the room.

Murasame grunted, trying to get up. Luckily, Kei didn't look too injured from the sudden attack, but when Isayuki stepped out of the smoke, there was a different presence around him. That innocent-like atmosphere was gone, leaving behind only an emotionless expression. With him now holding the scythe in his hand, he looked like he was about to attack anything that moved.

Or anything that was breathing.

Isayuki dashed forwards, swinging the scythe right at Murasame, but faint footsteps could be heard rushing down the hallway. In a split second, Isayuki appeared before Murasame, but in the next split second, a black-haired girl in a gold-trimmed white jacket blinked in before him, drawing the long nodachi from her sheath.

"Hein Hosen!"

A single slash drew from her blade to strike back Isayuki before she sheathed it. When it was completely in, multiple afterimage outlines struck Isayuki once more.

"Mode One!"

Isayuki was sent flying backwards into a wall.

"Murasame! Are you alright!?"

"Ikaruga!" Murasame couldn't forget his sister and that sword for anything else. "You sure took your time! I was starting to wonder if I was going to die—I mean, if I was going to end up handling everything first before you arrived! I have to give my dear sister some of the work, right?"

"Sorry that it took so long. The building had to be secured before having people siege it. I rushed down here as soon as I could once we got information that you might have been brought down here, but I see that you did have everything handled."

Ikaruga had said that last part to play along with her brother's confidence and while she spoke with a gentle smile, his attitude changed once she redirected her attention to the supposed enemy.

"I'll take it from her and deal with—"

"Wait, there's a misunderstanding! The kid that lunged is an ally!"

"What? But she just tried to—"

"I know! I don't understand it myself, but maybe your attack knocked some sense back into him!"

Murasame pointed to Kei for Ikaruga to deal with.

"Look after that child for me! I'll go check out the situation!"

As Murasame ran past his sister, Ikaruga widened her eyes to see the familiar face.

"Kei? What is he doing here? I guess that's two birds with one stone. At least, Yomi won't have to worry anymore…"

As Murasame approached, he slowed down to notice that the scythe was no longer close to Isayuki. In fact, it was no longer in the room, no matter where he looked. Ikaruga shouldn't have hit him so hard that the weapon actually shattered into molecular levels, right? That was the only explanation for it suddenly disappearing, but that was an irrational hypothesis.

Isayuki was starting to stir up, coughing up blood, but it was merely temporary. Any serious bleeding he received was starting to close up, leaving only the limp body and the wincing expression of the young man. It looked as if Isayuki returned to normal.

"Ow, ow, ow…"

"..."

"Ugh, what happened? I didn't think punching a second glass tube would end up like this…" Isayuki tried to move, but he could only muster up strength in his fingers. "And then there was a bright light, and now I'm across the room…"

"You don't remember what happened? About that weapon?"

"I don't… understand what you're trying to ask, Mister Murasame. What weapon?"

There was a lot of process here, but Murasame merely pushed it off to the side. If help was already here, he should do his best to get out while he still could. However, he wasn't heartless enough to simply make Isayuki leave by himself. He lent his body to help Isayuki onto his feet, planning on helping him up to the surface.

"C'mon, kid. Let's get out of here."

"Th-thanks, Mister Murasame…"

Even though he was getting on his nerves, there was some sort of chain between them that caused Murasame to at least help him out.

He told himself that it might have been a feeling of pity.

However, it might have simply been fate.

Murasame's day went through quite an extraordinary turn of events. He never expected things to play out as they did. He probably went through the most physical effort he had in his entire life, but he knew it was worth it in the end if he had more things to brag about to his father.

All that, and bring information on a Yama-focused underground project and he would be on the road to greatness no matter where he—

"Hmm?"

Murasame reached in his pocket once he was outside, noticing that there was no longer an SD card, but multiple small fragments for a plastic card. Sweating, he slowly pulled out some of it to notice that it was indeed pieces of the SD card, all smashed up. It must have happened during the fight, but considering Murasame already wrecked the computer where he got the data…

"Ah, fuck me. Just my goddamn luck."

|-|/ 14 \|-|

"To think something like this would happen. This is certainly the last time I delegate a task to someone, so I should be taking some blame for that."

"You've been saying that for a while now, but you keep delegating tasks to other people."

"Well, I mean it this time."

"... You've also said that on numerous occasions."

"The difference here is that we've lost the Tsukiyomi. That's not good."

Hours ago, as the facility was being raided and cleared out by the calls that Ikaruga had made, two figures were standing aloof from a vantage point in the trees. They were about to enter the premises, but upon seeing the disturbance, it was far better to hold off and retreat. As such, the rest of the guards dispersed, leaving them to watch the situation carefully.

Most of their offsite team had managed to escape before it was surrounded through underground tunnels, leaving only a handful of people caught and arrested. Communication was still being held though, as one of the women received a message on her earpiece.

"It appears that their hostage has stolen some of our data. While we do keep back-ups in other locations, it does not change the fact that our lines have been breached." One of them was dressed in a black and gold garb, traditionally of a kunoichi, but her long scarf hid her mouth's movements. "What do we do, Lady Kasuga?"

"I'll see what options we have, but…"

A woman in her mid-twenties stepped out of the shadow, narrowing her amber eyes. Her hair was long and neat, colored in a fragrant violet. Her black and gold kimono made her stand out a bit, but the long distance away from the facility ensured that they wouldn't be seen.

"Murasame Houou…" The woman brought up her fan, hiding her mouth behind it. "How interesting… How very interesting…"

"It doesn't appear like he's a registered shinobi, but it would be foolish to take him lightly after what he spurred on here. We'll take him into account, Lady Kasuga."

"Well, we shouldn't be dwindling around here for too long."

"Of course. We need to make countermeasures immediately."

The violet-haired woman narrowed her eyes as she closed her fan.

"Murasame Houou. We shall meet one day and I'll see to it that this incident shall be paid for."

Almost like the shadows that casted down on them, the two women disappeared without a single trace left behind, like the careful wind's breeze, grazing upon everyone.

|-|/ 15 \|-|

Isayuki and Kei were both admitted to the hospital to check on their conditions. Yomi came by after being contacted by Ikaruga to pick up Kei when he was confirmed to have no serious injuries, but Isayuki didn't have the same privilege. He had no connections to anyone and remained at the hospital, leaving the nurses and doctors to wonder about why an uninjured person was taking up a bed.

Since Murasame was also at the hospital, getting treated for his bruises and wounds, he could hear some of the gossip between nurses. He was actually beaten up more than he expected, so he likely had his pumping adrenaline to thank for keeping him in the game for long enough.

Either way, there was nothing else to do except to surf the internet, so he was getting bored. The moment that the nurses were allowing him to take walks around the hospital to stretch out his legs, he took them up on that recommendation.

He wasn't sure what compelled him to do so and for all the reasons, he shouldn't have stayed out of Isayuki's path and went their separate ways once he was out of the hospital.

However, Murasame found himself standing next to Isayuki's bed before he knew it

"I heard that the doctors couldn't find anything wrong with you."

"It appears that way."

"... What exactly are you?"

Isayuki's hair antenna had turned into a question mark.

"You're clearly not normal. All the wounds you took during our time in the facility somehow healed up with nothing left behind." Murasame was a bit envious, knowing that Isayuki wouldn't be in any real danger no matter what deadly situation he was in. "The doctors thought you were in pristine condition, especially compared to me or that child we found."

"... I don't know." Isayuki wryly smiled, trying to hide the fact that he had been bothered by it as well. "I thought this was normal, but it's clearly not. Despite having even this ability of mine, I can't even begin to fathom how I might have lost my memories in the first place."

"Your missing memories…"

Why did Murasame even care in the first place? To Murasame Houou, it shouldn't have mattered if Isayuki was normal or not, especially if there was no point in sustaining a relationship with him further than strangers, but he narrowed his eyes at the boy. Upon realizing that, he stopped his questions. There was really no need for Murasame to know any of it and even if Isayuki had answers, it wasn't as if Murasame's life would change from it.

Ikaruga did inquire a bit about him, but she never took a moment to inspect Isayuki for herself because Murasame ended up holding off on the truth. His identity as the person who unknowingly sieged their home remained a secret for now.

"I think I… I ended up floating in that river and losing my memories because I was weak."

"With a crazy healing factor like that?"

"My healing doesn't do much when I can't put it into use properly. After all, you don't have the same ability, but you still heroically lead the charge on our escape and fight with those bad guys. Compared to you, I'm very weak."

"Well, if you put it like that, everyone's weak compared to me. I'm the great Murasame Houou, after all. You aren't too low on the placings if you consider things in that perspective."

"I… I want to be able to be like you, Mister Murasame."

"Hmm?"

Isayuki gripped the ends of his blanket.

"Please teach me how to be strong like you, Mister Murasame!"

He bowed his head as far as he could on the bed.

"You're an amazing person, while I don't even have anywhere to stand! If I had half the knowledge and willpower like you, I probably wouldn't have been in that situation to begin with. Maybe, I wouldn't have even been caught floating down a river, missing my memories."

Murasame scratched his head. He wasn't exactly someone to take up the role of a teacher, but having someone consider him as strong was doing wonders on his ego. And it was because Isayuki really meant it from the bottom of his heart, Murasame could feel that genuinity in his voice.

Something resonated with Murasame.

"Being weak, huh?"

"I know that you're an important person, and that you might be constantly busy with other things, but I'd like to at least spend time around you to absorb what makes you so strong. You don't have to directly teach me! I'll try to learn by myself through watching you, if I have to! I'm prepared to—!"

"That's enough, kid. I can only take so many compliments like that before it makes me sick."

Murasame played the cool card. Of course, he was grinning in his soul to have someone earnestly praise him like that, but he didn't want to detract from Isayuki's image of him. He lightly chopped Isayuki's head, chuckling a bit.

"You said you wanted to be my student, huh? Well, call yourself whatever you want to call it, but it just so happens that some of my bodyguards got heavily injured during that incident. As well as a position to apply as my personal assistant. I won't be constantly teaching you things, because I'm such a busy man," Murasame said, lying through the bluff of his tone, "but if you want to hang around me and help out with whatever I tell you to do, I won't mind if you take that job."

"R-really!?"

"Well, we can't have you looking like that though. The personal assistant and best disciple of Murasame Houou needs to be presentable, after all. When I'm done here and the doctors let me go, we'll get you a bit of a makeover, one fitting to be next to Murasame Houou!"

"Thank you!"

Isayuki bowed once more.

"Thank you so much, Mister Murasame. Or since I'll be studying under you now, should I call you Master Murasame?"

That stroked Murasame's ego so hard. Despite not wanting anything to do with Isayuki the night prior, Murasame was starting to think having his own fan was a great idea.

"Ohoho! That's not a bad sound! I like it! Alright, from now on, you'll be calling me Master Murasame and I won't respond to anything else!"

"Yes! Of course, Master Murasame!"

Little did Murasame and Isayuki know that this would be the beginning of their crazy adventures together. With their feet in the door, a story of mischief unfolds, awaiting their involvement.

"Wait, but they're going to ask for a family name. It's going to look rather suspicious if you don't have one, and if they somehow don't bat an eyebrow…" Murasame looked at the paperwork left at the end of Isayuki's bed, mainly meant for the nurses and doctors. He could see that the box of the family name had been crossed out. "I suppose it would make things far easier than explaining why you don't have a family name available to you.

"Sorry, Master Murasame. I still can't remember anything about that."

"Then I'll just have to give you one. No big deal."

Murasame smirked, glancing back at Isayuki.

"From now on, your name shall be—"

|-|/ 16 \|-|

After a few days in the hospital, Murasame returned to the Phoenix Conglomerate's main building to resume his job. Of course, he was going to be more wary of sketchy offers like how that Tengu Foundation had made to him. He tried to have people look more into that company, but as they were defeated, it was as if someone was trying to wipe their information out. There weren't any leads he could provide to his father without heavy speculation anymore, but he decided it wasn't worth that much effort. He was happy, knowing that whatever they were planning, he had stopped it in its tracks.

"Welcome back, Murasame. Hmm?"

The receptionist noticed the Houou son enter the building, but she paused when she noticed one more person following him in his tracks. Usually, some bodyguards might have been positioning themselves around the prestigious son, but most of Murasame's forces were out of commission thanks to the Tengu Foundation incident.

Of course, he was offered for immediate replacements, but apparently, there was someone else he had in mind for the position. This must have been the person, but they looked younger than Murasame which brought up some red flags. For security reasons, the receptionist stopped the young woman.

"Excuse me?"

"Yes?"

She could have sworn it was a young woman at first, given the androgynous face and the long hair, tied into a ponytail with a phoenix pin, but the voice, while soft spoken, stirred the pot in confusing the gender. She noticed the body frame of the person had been closer to a man's, so she started to assume so. The black suit he was wearing helped to emphasize his masculinity, even if anywhere above the neck hadn't done so. In fact, it looked like a subtle alteration of Murasame's white suit.

"You wouldn't be the new bodyguard assigned to Murasame Houou, no?"

"In a way," Murasame answered for the young man. "I'll have more bodyguards soon, but for the meantime, you can think of this kid as my personal assistant and disciple."

Personal assistant, the receptionist could understand, but disciple…? It was probably not worth the trouble to ask more about it, considering the type of man Murasame Houou had been. It was the sort of situation where she likely paid enough to care about it more than what was required.

"I'll still have to process an identification card for you, for future convenience. This wasn't… exactly alerted to any of the staff. What's your name?"

The young man pressed his hand on his chest to answer.

"My name is Isayuki Kagura! I'm a proud student of Murasame Houou, learning under his tutelage and helping him out in whatever way I can as his assistant! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hmm."

—Something told the receptionist that this was going to be a problematic duo.

There were simply going to be another enigmatic variable that the company would have to account for.

|-|/ SK : eV | CH1 END \|-|

Chapter 1 / Author's Notes


The original version of Enigmatic Variables has frankly escaped my memories, but I did try to weave in as much as I could remember as a homage to the original execution.

It has been years after its original upload and years since I've touched it as a reader. I do vaguely remember it involving the original character approaching Murasame during his training to help him out after being innocently impressed by his "skill" and once finished, the original character was so appreciative that he wanted to become Murasame's pupil. The bag of explosives was something I recall from it, but I don't know how it played into the story, so I threw it in there as I saw fit.

Although this concept got straight to the point, it probably didn't feel naturally laid out. In this revival, or should I say renewal, I gave Murasame a bit of solo time to ease people into his life before letting shit hit the fan. I believe that Murasame, as arrogant and egoistic as he is, has a unique trait that I'll headcanon into this story.

Someone who is generally shit at fighting, prideful and arrogant in his everyday life, but when things get tough and his life is on the line, his mind sharpens and puts everything into overdrive to make sure he makes it out of it alive. And for physical capabilities, that's where Isayuki comes in, someone who generally isn't bright or the sharpest tool in the shed, but with someone else frantically steering the wheel for him to make sure they don't crash, he can at least direct all of his power accordingly without needing to give it much thought without actually realizing that they were in severe danger to begin with.

It's an oddball combination.

It's a good segway to Isayuki, but I don't think there's much to say about him, so far at least. Although it might seem a little pretentious to give him the last name "Kagura", I tried to approach this in a way that Murasame might approach naming someone who became his student. Since he's aware of the highest shinobi rank of "Kagura", I personally think it's fittingly pretentious to have Murasame give Isayuki the last name of Kagura. It's probably the only way for a "Kagura" to be Murasame's student, and well, I suppose seeing those file did recently put that term back on his radar.

Isayuki will be serving as the garnish to Murasame's character, but I'll be balancing attention out between those two. Murasame may be the star of the show here, but Isayuki's character is just as important to keep the dynamic of the enigmatic variables. After all, Isayuki's got his own problems to deal with, considering his missing memories and all.

Things are definitely going to be picking up for the two guys, who teeter right on the edge of the shinobi world without actually being able to step in for themselves. It's certainly a unique perspective that I'll be taking advantage of, but I'll also be giving the spotlight to Ikaruga and Yomi on occasions.

Ikaruga's role might be obvious, but what does Yomi have to do with any of this? The answer to that awaits… when I get to it.

I don't think it's going to be in the next chapter.

Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed the story so far. Feel free to review any of your thoughts and comments to help out with how I reflect on Enigmatic Variables. Good reviews motivate me, criticisms push me to look at the story from a different perspective. So I try to answer whatever I can… when I get around to doing so… Ahaha…

I'll see you in Chapter 2.