Taaru was hanging from a tree by his legs tied to a rope and doing pull ups, sweating heavily with his long hair falling over his face, breathing heavily while in the middle of his work out. He had weights tied to his wrists and he was keeping his arm behind his back while doing his pull ups.

"N-need to do m-more." he said groaning as he pulled himself up with one final pull up, and then cut the rope with a knife he had behind his back and fell from the tall tree. He twisted his body to kick off the tree and roll as he landed on the ground, standing on his feet panting heavily. "Been getting farther." Taaru said turning around and looking at nearly fifty seven other impacts from his training when he said, "But i need to do more to make me faster and stronger."

"This isn't like you?" a voice asked in a calm tone and his eyes widened, turning around only to see nothing and wind blowing around. This unsettled him and he turned back to the tree only to hear, "You are losing yourself and losing my lessons." Taaru closed his eyes and hummed out loud to try ignoring the sound.

"You're dead, so the Kuma style is mine." he said returning to his training and ignoring the voice coming from his head about what he was planning on doing very soon.

Kenta was in the farmers market and looking through a lot of things for sale, smiling while scanning things for anything he needed when his phone started to buss.

"Oh, cool." Kenta said smiling looking at his text and seeing a picture of Miyuki smiling face on the photo she had sent him. Kenta smiled and set that photo as his wallpaper when he noticed the date, "Huh, it's about time to go get Taaru and get ready for the tournament." He put his phone in his pocket and walked along the stands, looking through more things when he saw a local butcher. Remembering how Taaru is, he walked in and suddenly felt dread. Shaking from the pressure on his body and felt his breath being sucked from him just from standing in the room. Slowly, Kenta turned to see the person emitting the energy and had to tilt his head to look up at a man standing over two meters tall. His long hair hanging in a pony tail and he was dressed from head to toe in black. Soon, the guy turned around and Kenta's eyes widen when he saw it was Mamushi Shibo.

"Excuse me." he said with a smile on his face and Kenta gulped hard before slowly stepping to the side, letting him slip past the door and out into the street. The world felt empty as Kenta thought over what had just happened and he was feeling as though he was about to throw up.

"Sir." called out the butcher and Kenta was quickly pulled back to reality, looking at him with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Yeah, sorry." Kenta said walking up to the counter and looked at the cut before setting his order, yet in the back of his mind, he couldn't help but think about Mamushi Shibo and what Taaru would have said if he learned he came face to face with him out of nowhere. Outside the shop, Shibo walked along the market, smiling from meeting with Kenta.

"I hope you are ready Taaru, for we will clash soon." he said to himself walking along the market and arrived at a private car, climbing in to drive away.

Gou was at his desk in his office, finishing up some paperwork he needed to fill out before the tournament. Letting out a long sigh, he looked at a picture of his kids, reaching for it and staring at it smiling, seeing how happy they looked.

"Oh, Kenta. Why did you have to join the Kengan Association?" he asked out loud when the door opened and he put the picture down to look at his eldest son, Denji.

"Father, everything is set in motion for the tournament." Denji said bowing to him and looking at his father to see he was upset, "What's the matter?"

"Oh, I'm just worried about Kenta and the trouble he's getting into by joining the tournament." he said with a sigh and looked at him.

"Don't worry about him." Denji said walking up to the desk and gave his father a smile while adding, "this will be his only tournament since after he loses, we will take his company." Gou let out another sigh and continued to fill the paperwork, trying to get his mind off of everything that might happen in mere days.

Kenta stepped off the bus at the final stop and checked his phone, letting a sigh after seeing he had no signal while heading up the path that lead to the camp he had set up for Taaru. He got to the clearing and was shocked to see the whole place was in shambles.

"Taaru?" he called out to him and looked around, wondering what could have happened here and worried about where his affiliated fighter was.

"What?" Taaru's voice called out to him and Kenta looked around until he saw Taaru standing on a tall tree, looking down to him and Kenta let out a long sigh after seeing he was okay.

"It's time to come back we need to get to the docks tonight." Kenta explained and watched as Taaru jumped from the top to lower branches, and landed in front of him smiling.

"Shall we go then?" he asked him walking towards the path and leaving Kenta confused for a few moments before following him close behind, wondering what he could have been doing there all alone.

In a closed room with no window, Yaju was standing in the middle of the room lite by candles and taking a deep breath he began to swing, snuffing them all with his fists and bare feet. Now in darkness, he took another deep breath and continued to do some basic training alone when the door slid open.

"It's time to go." a figure said and he stopped in mid kick, standing on his feet and cracking his neck, Yaju walked towards the door. "You seem excited." the figure said watching him walk past with a smile on his face.

"I am." he said walking down the hall and then turning to look at the figure, "I think I might have fun with someone new in this tournament." That being said, he went into the bathroom to wash up while the figure stood there and smiled, letting him enjoy his fun.

The sun was starting to set as Kenta and Taaru were at Kenta's house with a feast in front of them. Kenta had his rice bowl, eating some of it while watching Taaru rip meat form some bones and eating it all while he looked at Kenta, sensing something.

"Hey, did you meet someone?" Taaru asked with his mouth filled with meat and then drank som water to wash it down, shocking Kenta from hearing him asked that out of no where.

"W-w-what do you mean?" he asked him confused as to how Taaru could have told that from out of no where.

"Your body language." Taaru said ripping more meat form his meat and chewing as he continued, "You seem less stressed and you have been looking down to your phone, seemingly hoping to get a call from someone."

"Y-yeah, I found someone." Kenta said looking down and smiled, thinking of Miyuki and how much fun they had been having for nearly a month hanging out with each other. "Her name is Miyuki, she was an old friend from my school years."

"Good for you." Taaru said eating more meat and smiling at Kenta, making him smile back while feeling uneasy, wondering if he should tell him that he saw Shibo while he was out earlier in the day. After thinking for bit, he let out a long sigh, figuring it was best to tell him later.

Kenta turned to see the clock and his eyes widened. Turning back to Taaru he said, "We should finish up, our car will be here soon to take us to the spot." The two of them finished their meal and then got the few things they need before heading out, getting into the rent car Kenta had set up for them to go to the docks. They soon arrived there and Kenta held his briefcase tightly in his hand as they walked around the closed docks in the middle of the night.

"Are you sure about this being the place?" Taaru asked having his doubts on this being the place they needed to get to and was keeping his guard up since he has sworn to never let it down again after what had happened in the forest with Yaju. Then they saw a light waiting for them, so they walked over to it where they saw a tall man in a suit with a flashlight.

"Name." he said holding a clipboard and looking at them, checking them out while he waited for one to answer.

"Kenta Toshio, newest member of the Kengan Association and this is my fighter, Taaru Mota." Kenta told him and he checked the paper on it, looking through what was written on it.

"Ah yes. Here you are." he said taking out a piece of paper and handing it to Taaru, confusing him as he looked at the paper and then looked at the guy. "This is a form saying you understand what you're putting your body through and you do not hold anyone responsible for what happens to you during the tournament."

Taaru took the pen and wrote down his name, showing little to no hesitation in his choice. "Very good, you may join the others on the ship." Kenta and Taaru walked up the gangplank and saw several other people on board as they all looked at them. The guy checked his watch and then took out his walkie talkie, "That's everyone, lets head out." The ship began to move, throwing Kenta and Taaru off their balance.

"I hope you are all ready." said a voice on a speaker and everyone looked up to the hail as the guy continued, "You are all going to be set in the Wild Card fights to name the final four fighters to enter the Kengan Annihilation Tournament."

TBC