Kiba gets on all fours, growling at me. I've been nice for long enough, I'll put the dog in his place.
"Arghhhh!" Kiba screams as he runs towards me, I get ready for his attack.
"And that's as far as you go!" A voice shouts as a massive rat comes out of the ground before me, absorbing Kiba's punch with it's stomach.
The rat was several heads taller than the average human, standing on 2 legs. Kiba's fist was stuck in the thick fur of the animal which seemed to hold Kiba's hand.
"What...is...this..?!" Kiba said as he tried to pull his hand out, barely managing to do so after a some pulling and falling to the ground.
"Well I'm sure my grandson wouldn't mind teaching you a lesson himself but violence should be avoided right??" Oroshi said as we all turned to him, he was sitting on a nearby building with a wicked grin.
"Now then!" He said as he stood up and jumped over the people, landing right next to the rat. "Unmatched in charm and power, able to solve every dispute, the legendary rat tamer, Oroshi has arrived!" Oroshi said, acting over the top again..
I have no idea how people are supposed to take him seriously with such an.."introduction" but unsurprisingly the people started mumbling things like "It's Oroshi.." and "he's here.." some even backing off.
"You...! Y-you Hatagano's are coward! Fight me one on one like a man Kazuki!" Kiba says.
"What a weird thing to say and request while being backed up by 100 people." Oroshi says, not losing even a bit of his confidence. The rat that just protected me from the punch disappears.
"Now go home." He turns to the people "You are fed lies and being used by evil people. I admit our system isn't perfect but none is."
The crowds anger disappears, they look at eachother and some turn around and start leaving.
"Don't let him manipulate you folks! He's using magic to calm you down." A voice from the crowd shouts. He walks out of the crowd and reveals himself.
"F-father!" Kiba says.
"Baki..." Oroshi says. Well, this is just getting better and better.
"Oroshi noticed that he's losing power and that he can't control the people anymore so he called forces from the Capital to occupy our beloved homes and truly become a dictator!"
The crowd was back to being angry again. The people just listened to everything they were told and accepted it as the complete truth without questioning.
"But there's no need to be aggressive or do anything we'd regret right?" Baki continued. "In time his rule will come to an end, change is about to happen, who know's he might even die of old age..he is 69 after all---"
"Choose your next words carefully Baki.." Oroshi says, not too pleased about Baki's comments.
"Ugh--" Baki backed away a bit. "I'm not scared of you Oroshi, do you think you can keep being a tyrant??"
"I don't need to be a tyrant, I could just end this right here and now but I'll always allow my people to decide about their own future and soon enough they'll see you're just one of the many powerhungry madmen with empty promises." Oroshi says.
"So I don't need to do a single thing but I will, just to save the hard workers and families of this settlement from the pain of dealing with you.." Oroshi smirked.
Baki lost his cool rather quickly compared to Oroshi, feeling completely disgraced.
"Ughh--- Why you..." Baki clenched his fists.
"Easy now, there's no need to be aggressive or do anything we'd regret, right?" Oroshi smirked, knowing he won this.
"I will teach you how---" Baki seemed upset enough to actually escalate the situation but stopped as the loud sound of dry wood hitting the ground was heard.
Everyone turns to the sound to see the old lady Sheelah who is one of the village council members. Behind her where the other 2 council members and a few men in what I can only describe as pitch black detective clothes and a coat.
"Shame! 2 grown men, people that are supposed to lead this village and be the pillars of our society clashing on the streets!" She said, looking quite pissed.
Baki immediately stopped "But Lady Sheelah, this uncultured---"
"Silence!" Sheelah stopped him. "I heard enough of the conversation, you're a threat to peace and stability of Naofuma! You're hereby kicked out of the Council!"
"What?!" Baki looked shocked, to be honest, everyone did. "You...you can't! There isn't anyone that can take my place, I'm a voice of the people! This is democracy!"
"This isn't democracy, this is a riot!" She shouts "Now enough, the Council made its decision, now disband these thugs before I change my mind on letting you go peacefully!"
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Oroshi, satisfied with himself grins and turns around, the village elders and I do the same and we start leaving the scene.
"Rrr...AARRGGGHHH!" Baki growls as he starts running, about to hit Oroshi from behind. Yet without a single wasted move Oroshi turns around and grabs his fist, stopping him in his tracks.
"Grrr...why you!.." Baki uses his second fist to try and punch Oroshi but Oroshi grabs it as well.
The now partly transformed Baki who had his teeth showing, his power levels so high that his mana was almost visible was stopped by Oroshi with little to no effort.
"You let your rage control you Baki. You're no leader...you're a disgrace.." Oroshi said, quickly letting Baki's hands go and pushing him with his palms, sending him flying into a few barrels across the street.
"Father!!" Kiba shouts.
Baki looked like he was out cold and the people turned to Oroshi, about to riot.
"Wait...we're better than them...this is not the place to fight.." Baki said, barely conscious.
The people seemed to be calming down, Kiba and some other villagers helpef Baki up and they left together.
"..Thank you lady Sheelah I am--" Oroshi got interrupted by Sheelah slapping him.
"Disgraceful! What would your father say?? You're not a bit better than Baki!" The old woman said.
"I apologize...Rage took over...It's starting to affect me as well..." Oroshi looked down.
"It"? What's that..? And who are these men..? Guess I'll find out.
"Nevermind that...The IMSA arrived at your house Oroshi, they request your presence immediately." Sheelah continued.
"Yes.." Oroshi said as we headed home. As we arrived, there were several more of the coated men standing there. As we entered our house and the livingroom we were greeted by Baba and a bald man, probably in his 60's, dressed in black as well.
"Oroshi, I'm glad you could make it." The bald man said.
"You know me, I usually go home when I can." Oroshi smirked as the bald man stood up.
"Long time no see Autrey." Oroshi said as they shook hands.
Autrey then looked at me. "Is this your grandson? He certainly grew into a fine young man..long time no see Kazuki." He offered me a hand.
"Yeah.." I shook it "Do I know you..?" I ask.
Autrey chuckles "I doubt you remember me holding you as an infant so...not really."
"I indeed do not." I say.
"Well, that's fine." We finished shaking hands. Both Oroshi and Autrey took a seat after.
"Thank you for the wonderful tea Kaya, I'd like to have a word with your husband now. What is going on here Oroshi?" Autrey said.
"The villagers are going crazy, I've noticed unnatural change in aura and personality. I fear the worst, and since the Naofuman Military is disbanded already and we can't trust any of the locals anymore I decided to get the IMSA involved." Oroshi answers.
"My men and I noticed the same even before reaching the settlement. I didn't expect the situation to be this serious, I'll be sending an immediate call for back-up to The Capital, we need to search the whole area." Autrey says before sipping his tea.
"So...I see you guys are really into this topic so I'll just.." I said as I slowly started backing off.
"What are you saying? Come sit with us Kazuki! This topic should concern you as much as the rest of us!" Autrey said, pointing to a seat.
Oroshi didn't seem to like this, he looked at Autrey suspiciously. I sigh and sit down.
"Anyway...I suspect it's the Black Moon..." Oroshi said.
"The Black Moon??" Autrey looked surprised. "Why would they have anything to do with this??"
"I know, I know, it's just a theory." Oroshi says.
"Wait wait wait..who are they??" I ask, totally confused.
Oroshi sighs. "Well...they are a terrorist organisation that lurks in the shadows of the empire, no one knows who they exactly are and what they want. They have managed to hide their true identities and motives for decades so they must have some powerful individuals working with or for them."
"Till now several attacks on Naofuma and other places across the world are directly connected to them. Their last activity was many years ago and they completely vanished ever since."
"I-i see..." I say, completely surprised by the answer. Some secret powerful dark Organisation?? Why didn't I know about this sooner??
"But Oroshi, as you said they completely disappeared, every clue we had lead to a dead end, it seems like they just don't exist anymore so why would you think they are back and trying to manipulate Naofuma like this?" Autrey asks.
"Easy...They want to take control of the spirit gate..." Oroshi said, looking rather serious.
..The spirit what now? What are these guys talking about???
"Oroshi...You know I don't believe in tales..." Autrey says, leaning back.
"I understand your disbelief Autrey but that may be a motive...The facts are there, it's the end of a millenium..." Oroshi says.
"Again it's just a legend, don't be ridiculous Oroshi, this is a serious problem!" Autrey didn't seem too amused.
"What legend?? Guys???" I say.
Oroshi looks at me again "Oh...this isn't really the time but I never told you about the story of how the Hatagano's came to be."
"A millenium ago, the world was a place full of spirits and magic, humans were just a small part of it. After a mistake made by a young man, the forces of evil started growing rapidly and a creature made out of pure darkness threatened to destroy the world."
"The young man, determined to make things right and fix his mistakes went on a journey, meeting 3 allies who were destined by the book of time to grow in power and stop the evil god. As the book said, they did, but the forces of darkness couldn't be destroyed so the heroes created the 3 so called 'spirit gates' which are points across the world, they are the prison that keeps the evil god sealed away."
"Each of the adventurers decided on guarding one of the gates, preventing anyone from making the mistake of breaking the seal and releasing the god. Eventually those 3 heroes became known as the gate Keepers and each one of them had a family which through their generations always had just one purpose, protecting their spirit gate." Oroshi says.
"And as you can may guess...the Hataganos are one of the families. Over the centuries the human race took over the world, other races were forced to retreat to certain parts of the world and many went extinct...Still many survived, was it because of numbers or sheer power, one of those races are the humanimals or half-humans. Each family represents one of the large remaining races, the humanimals, The onis, also known as demons and lastly the elves."
Autrey and I look at Oroshi, me being rather confused and Autrey seeming like he's hearing this for the 50th time.
"..Getting a bit off topic here...Oh well, the gates weren't a permanent solution, even though they were powerful and probably couldn't be opened by the families themselves, energy can't exist in the same place forever, it escapes so the gates were bound to become weaker and according to the legend after 1000 years the gates would cross a point where they could get opened with sheer power so the Keepers came up with a solution."
"Those gates...they are the pure energies of the original Keepers...their life force is in them and the Keepers will protect them no matter what so...they shall be reborn when the millenium passes to be there to fight off forces of evil and make sure to close off the gates again for another millenium of peace...preventing the end of the world in a sense."
"Now, a 1000 years later, the time has come, the followers of the dark forces no longer need to dwell in the shadows, they will rise and a battle for the fate of the world shall begin."
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