"And I can use anything in my power, right?" Asks Naoki.

"Yes. Please, do use everything in your arsenal," says Kito. His eyes twinkle.

Naoki assumes his fighting stance, and stares at Kito.

"(Should I use my flute?)" Thinks Naoki to himself. "(No, not this close. I need to get some distance between us. Granted, there's no way I'm winning a direct fight with him. But, I have two ways of 'winning' this. The first is to just impress him. And the other is to survive for as long as possible and gamble on his verdict. Still, I just need to do my best. Nae- do more than my best to win this.)"

Kito crosses his arms, and smirks.

Naoki rushes forward. Keeping his guard up, he aims to punch-

Kito meets Naoki in the middle of his dash, and grabs the teenager by the face. Swiftly interrupting Naoki's weak attempt at defense, and even weaker attempt at offense, Kito lifts Naoki's entire body. Naoki's hat falls off while he's getting flailed. Kito carries him midair for a full second, and slams Naoki headfirst into the concrete. A crater forms beneath the back of Naoki's head.

"Naoki!" yells Makoto, before getting her neck yanked by Robert's forearm.

Pitch black.

Naoki is unconscious.

COUGH

Naoki opens his eyes. He feels a migraine, as well as something heavy weigh down on his stomach. It's Kito stepping on him.

"Wake up." Says Kito. "You wasted 30 seconds already." Kito then softly kicks Naoki's body over.

Quickly standing back up, Naoki coughs up some blood, before wiping it off of his sleeve. The back of Naoki's blonde head is stained red.

"(God damn it!)" Thinks Naoki thinks to himself. "(How could I get knocked out so quickly? I was saving my Ki to go all out for the last minute, but that's clearly not going to work now)."

Naoki snarls before huffing, and dashes forward once again.

With an annoyed expression, Kito scoffs. Once again, Kito slams his hand directly on Naoki's face.

Yet Kito feels something odd. "(His weight... he's light?)" Thinks Kito.

In midair, Naoki willingly lets Kito take his face, while the rest of his body coils around Kito's arm.

Seeing an immediate answer for this, Kito slams Naoki to the ground. Naoki, already being experienced with this type of counter from years of grappling, tries his best to angle himself so that a majority of his shoulder takes the brunt of the damage instead of his head. He focuses his ki into his upper body and head so that he doesn't get knocked out again.

"(Come on pull...PULL.)" Thinks Naoki, arching back while pinching his legs as hard possible. Every time Kito slams his arm down to the concrete, Naoki switches his ki to focus on defending his upper body, before reverting a majority of his ki throughout his body to break Kito's arm.

Seeing this, Kito feels his arm slowly yet surely outstretch, and bend backwards. He stops slamming Naoki, and proceeds to use his other hand to snatch onto Naoki's shin.

Immediately panicking, Naoki feels his shin slowly crumple. Like a hydraulic press that's caught onto his bone.

Struggling, screaming, Naoki musters all his force to break Kito's arm.

"(NO. NOT NOW. NOT NOW. NOT NOW. I'LL SACRIFICE MY LEG FOR YOUR ARM.)"

Like the sound of a tree breaking in half, something loud SNAPS.

For a second, Makoto's hard, beating heart calms down for a second.

Kito's men look surprised.

Naoki uses his other leg to kick himself off of Kito's face and vice grip, and rolls backwards. Before continuing his offense, Naoki notices.

Kito is just standing there. A blank expression covers his face.

Kito, stares at his arm, bent backwards at an 83 degree angle. He blinks.

"(I need to be careful, I can't rush in. For now, I'll take whatever couple seconds I can get to breathe and force my muscles to close the wound on my leg.)" Thinks Naoki to himself. "(But perhaps, I can set something up.)" Naoki begins to chant underneath his breath, multitasking while he stares at Kito.

"Tainted soul."

Kito simply stands, before his arm's muscles begin to move themselves. From an outside perspective, Kito's muscles twitch and move like gelatin. Like a conveyer belt, or a bunch of men rowing a boat, or a line of men passing one bucket of water to another. Quickly, carefully, Kito's muscles alone force the arm to bend back to its former state. Tugging and tugging; pulling and pulling. Everyone hears a loud crack as Kito's arm is reset back to place. He bends it for a bit, making sure its back to normal.

"Ugly heart."

Kito crosses his arms.

"Next."

Naoki murmurs under his breathe, staring in awe. "Death of an ogre..."

Kito wrinkles his nose.

Naoki tries to finish; "I'll beat yo-"

[BURST]ing forward, Kito covers Naoki's mouth, before clutching onto it.

"Just because I'm handicapping myself, doesn't mean I'll go easy on you." Whispers Kito.

With his one hand, Kito proceeds to carry Naoki's entire body once again. Twirling around, Kito lets go of Naoki and hurls him at a wall like a frisbee. However, Naoki rolls in midair, and lands in a crouching position against the wall, instead of splatting against it. Naoki looks up. Kito leaps forward, doing a jumping knee at mach speed, aimed directly at Naoki. Naoki overtunes his ki, blocks his chest and face with his arms and braces for impact.

Both of them explode out of the other side of the wall, back near the cargo field. Naoki's left forearm is dented, bruised, and slightly bent backwards. It is numb. He can barely control it anymore. His right arm isn't fairing too well either. Blood oozes down the back of his head, upper back, and arms. Yet he keeps his kickboxing style guard up.

Kito pops out of the dust, throwing simple boxing combinations. Naoki dodges a jab and a straight, before getting mollywhopped with a left hook. However, Naoki uses the momentum of the attack and swivels around, doing a muay thai style spinning back elbow towards Kito's face.

The elbow catches Kito off-guard, as it makes a small cut above his eyebrow. The blood drips down to his eye, causing his vision to blur for a bit. "Cute," he comments, before regenerating the cut while shooting a right hook to the back of Naoki's left kidney. Naoki screams, but ducks out of muscle memory, unintentionally dodging Kito's incoming left hook to the face. Naoki rises once again with an uppercut, hook, straight setup. Kito pats all of them away with ease. Finishing the combo, Naoki kicks Kito's calf. The teenager recoils, as if a normal human were kicking a steel beam. Kito on the other hand, with a clearly more experienced Muay Thai style guard, checks the kick, and counters by kicking the side of Naoki's kneecap.

Naoki's leg buckles. He guards his face with his arms, bracing for a strike to the head. "You're boring me." Says Kito. "I'm reducing one minute." Naoki instead gets uppercutted in the stomach, sending him flying up in the air.

Kito bounces from the side of a cargo in an attempt to catch Naoki's body midair.

Naoki, forcing a maximum output of his psychopower, uses [Telekinesis] to grab and pull himself up in the air. Kito initially misses his grab, before jumping in midair. Kito activates the ki in his feet to forcefully "step" on the air molecules, for split seconds, bouncing in midair, eventually kicking Naoki down to ground.

Naoki careens down and frantically scurries back to the center of the factory where everyone else is.

"(It's now or never!)" Thinks Naoki to himself, whipping his [Shakuhachi] flute out.

He readies it near his lips. He tries to blow a note.

No sound comes out.

Kito, too fast to be kept up with, already appears in front of Naoki. He plugs his pointer finger into the end of the flute's hole.

"Checkmate." Calmly says Kito.

Naoki stares at the ogre in front of him. Kito wears a blank expression. Naoki, bloodied and battered, closes his eyes, and calmly accepts what will happen to him.

"(Well. It doesn't hurt to try.)" thinks Naoki to himself.

Using all of his force, Naoki proceeds to blow into his flute as much as possible, while kicking Kito's rib. Kito barely budges a millimeter backwards.

However.

A millimeter is all that Naoki needs.

Getting pushed backwards, Kito's finger lets a small gap of air escape through the end of Naoki's flute.

Naoki's [Shakuhachi] flute is a tool that amplifies Naoki's ability. It translates Naoki's PsychoPower ability, [Psionic Haze] into soundwaves. Instead of concentrating within one's mind, the flute reduces the workload. However, this is if the ability is used. Otherwise, the flute is just an amplifier.

And an amplified flute, is loud.

PWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

VOLUME WARNING: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UhoyxMmwH4

With just that tiny gap in the opening, all of Naoki's lung power produces an ear piercing screech akin to a sonar ping.

Kito's hand instantly explodes, even forming a small tear down the middle of his forearm. Everyone in the factory falls to the ground, covering their ears. Typically, nobody is affected by their own technique. However, since Naoki blew the flute without his technique, he is still affected by the reverberating noise. If it weren't for the fact that everyone has at least some sort of ki for defense, everyone would have at best, gone deaf, or at worst, die.

Stunned for only half a second, Kito, looking pissed, is the first to recover out of everyone. Regenerating his hand in a second, he cocks his fist back. Naoki focuses all of his remaining ki into his face, and tries to block with his arms.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

His arms do not block in time.

Nailing him in the eye, Kito punches Naoki back to the opposite end of the factory's wall.

Naoki splats against the wall before sliding down. He coughs up blood, knowing full well that his Ki is shaved down to its last embers. Most of his body feels numb. And whatever isn't numb, stings with agonizing pain. He feels something wet go down his cheek. His breathing gets haggard. "(A tear?)" He thinks to himself. He touches it; its thick, squishy and oily. In disbelief, he starts to panic. "(No...blood?)" He tries to open his eyes, yet only one of them opens. Its white and clear. He finally realizes.

"(My eye! He popped my eye!)"

Frantically shaking, Naoki tries to stand up. "(Come on... come on, steel yourself!)" Commands Naoki to his body. And yet. No matter what amount of body control he thought he had before, and no matter what amount of mental training he endured, none of it seemed to matter.

Naoki stands and quivers in shock. Kito walks over to him. Naoki simply stands. Too scared to move. Too paralyzed to talk. He simply stares at the ogre in front of him.

Kito, with a slightly annoyed face, grabs Naoki by the throat. He lifts the kid up. "3. 2. 1. Time is up." Naoki limply hangs from Kito's grasp.

Kito walks back to the center. Makoto tears up a bit, but for as sad as she is for Naoki, feels an overwhelming amount of anger within herself. Fortunately, this just seemed to be the perfect place to be captured. For just like she did a couple months ago, she was concentrating air on a bigger scale. Slowly yet surely, the air feels off.

Kito drops Naoki on the floor. Naoki, on his knees, looks at Kito with immense sadness and fear.

"Now... you're not bad kid. Not at all." Says Kito. "And you'd expect me to say that you're brimming with potential. But."

Naoki's heart sinks. He simply stares at the ground.

"You're not." Continues Kito. "There's some things here and there that surprised me, which is a good thing. And your form was...alright. But unfortunately, for someone who has years of experience in the tripower system, I expected more. Granted, having one more person in my crew would help regardless but, even if you join, you might hinder us on purpose. I'm sorry."

Kito kneels down to Naoki's level, looks him in the eye with a sullen face. Kito's eyes shimmer, as a particular, diamond pattern shapes his iris. "Are there any last words you would like to say?" Asks Kito.

Silence. Naoki hammers the ground with his fist. A tear falls down his cheek. Gargled grunts escape his lips, before going quiet again. For a minute straight, Naoki contemplates his life.

Silence.

Eventually, his reddened eyes stare back at Kito's genuine eyes.

"You said you were a politician, right?" Asks Naoki with a deep, raspy voice.

Kito is taken aback. "Are you sure you want those to be your last words?"

"Don't play dumb with me." Naoki's fingers curl on the ground; each fingertip drags blood. "I want to make a deal."

Makoto looks surprised. All of Kito's men look with confusion. Kito narrows his eyes. "You're playing a dangerous gamble, Naoki. What you say next dictates whether you die peacefully or brutally. What are you proposing?" Demands Kito.

"You said you were aiming to become mayor?" Asks Naoki.

"Correct."

"And the voting process has started, right?"

"Yes."

Naoki, with an angered scowl, points at himself with his thumb. "Me." He then points at Makoto. "Her." And then to the unconscious vessels. "Them. Five people. Five votes. If you spare us, I swear on my life, that we will all vote for you. The easiest, most secured votes you could ever want."

Kito looks blankly. He then looks down.

"(He's...he's right. The one ahead of me in the race is winning by two votes.)" He grinds his teeth, and remembers what he said the other day. "(My competitors and I are off by mere single digits numbers...A group of friends get to decide who gets to be mayor. It's too close for comfort...This is such an easy opportunity. But something's off.)" Kito looks at his victims. "That's not true. You can only make contracts with yourself and the person you're dealing with. You can't drag other people into it without their consent."

"I have a way." Says Naoki.

Makoto's face freezes.

"What are you planning?" Asks Kito.

"On my life, I will do everything in my power to force those vessels to vote for you." Says Naoki. "Us students act as officers overlooking the vessels. If they do anything that the school sees as unfit, two things can happen. Either the contract that they agreed to purges their soul, or we report them. Through that system, I can report the vessels to the higher ups, and the higher ups can update the contract to do as I say. Hence, I'll make them vote for you."

Kito looks semi-surprised. "You would do that? You... of all people... I'm inclined to not believe you."

"My life is on the line. Desperate times call for desperate measure, and I'd rather not fuck this up."

Kito cracks a genuine smile, in awe of the kid he perceived to influence. "Aye. You learn well. However." Kito bites his thumb. "The spirits aren't real people. How would they have citizenship to vote?"

"The government can make things work. Trust me, they would much rather trade in a vote for you to keep one of their soldiers."

Kito keeps on biting his thumb, pondering. "What about her?" Asks Kito, pointing towards Makoto.

"She's allowed to make whatever choice she wants."

Kito turns to her.

"I'll accept the same contract as Naoki, as well as go along with his plan." Says Makoto.

Kito continues to bite his thumb. "Robert, what time is it?" Asks Kito.

Robert checks his phone. "11:49 PM"

Kito finally claps his hand. "Good enough." He turns to Robert. "Let the girl go. You. Stand right next to Naoki," commands Kito.

Robert lets go of Makoto; she walks over right next to Naoki. Naoki also stands up. Both of them are extremely stiff.

"Alright well, lets go over the contract. I, Ushiyama Kito, as well as my men, will spare all five of your lives, as long as you two:

1. Promise to do everything in your power to make those vessels vote for me.

2. You two vote me for mayor."

"That's the contract, yes." Says Naoki.

"I want to add another condition," says Kito.

Both Naoki and Makoto look at him. Their hearts beat louder.

"I will only spare the five of your lives tonight. Tonight under the definition of 'before midnight.' Otherwise, the deal is off."

Naoki sweats nervously, but knows that he nor Makoto don't really have a choice.

"Deal." Says both of the students. Makoto and Naoki both shake Kito's hands.

"Alright then. One last thing, Naoki." Kito walks up to Naoki with a kind smile, and crouches to his level. He ruffles Naoki's hair. "Tonight's lesson, is mercy."

Kito then grabs onto Naoki's hair, imbues his other fist with ki, and proceeds to slam his fist into Naoki's gut. Naoki curls up on the ground, on the verge of vomiting. Kito latches onto Naoki's hair again, and whispers in his ear. "Mercy is a valuable thing; mercy is strength. All of you are still alive because of me. Remember that."

Kito lets go, before looking at Makoto.

Makoto's face is shadowed. Her eyes beam with vigor. Her fingers curl, itching to pull the trigger. One release. One release, and the entire factory blows up. All to hurt this fucker.

Kito's smile evaporates into a stern expression. He stares at Makoto.

"Do it."

Makoto's heart stops. "What?"

"Your heart is loud. Your cells tell your intent. Go ahead. Do it. You only have a couple of minutes to get away with it."

"And then what?"

"You'll find out." He says, staring into her soul.

Makoto grits her teeth. But ultimately she knew, he was right.

Detonating the factory would not only harm, if not kill Kito's men, but also Saizo, Ken, Viral, and most likely Naoki too. Not to mention, judging by what she just saw, it wouldn't be enough to kill Kito. Not now. Not yet.

She grits her teeth so hard, her gums start bleeding. She eventually unleashes her anger by punching herself. Pathetic. Weak. Inadequate. Failure.

Kito simply stares. His face so confused, he can't make a cohesive thought about it.

She eventually stops, looks away, and picks up Naoki. "Let's go. We don't have much time."

Naoki picks up Viral and her spear, while Makoto uses [Kaze] to pick Ken and Saizo's limp bodies up.

Exiting out the factory, they use whatever remaining power they have to rush back towards the Ordinance Academy.

.

.

.

A couple minutes pass. It's past midnight. All of the men stand around.

"Pick up the backpack and alcohol, and toss in a dumpster far away from here. Make sure to not touch any of the debris. We don't want any finger prints on anything." Commands Kito.

"Its past midnight. Are we going to chase them down?" Asks Robert, folding his arms.

Kito sits criss-cross on the floor and smiles. "No. The reason I added the condition of 'only before midnight will they be spared' is so that my end of the deal ends tonight. Thus, after they've all voted for me, I face no penalty for killing them since I already filled my end of the deal.

That being said, we still have plenty of things to discuss. For starters, someone tried to assassinate me this morning and got away. And with this situation, this confirms our presence to the Ordinance Academy. Now for this second time, obviously I want my votes, but looking at it on a bigger picture, we're running the same gamble yet again. Now with even bigger evidence that we spared them, they might throw the same level of fodder against us again. But I'm not holding my breath for that. So toughen up boys. I fear they'll bring out the real agents soon. Furthermore, since we're up against the government, they'll use whatever means necessary to take us down. I don't know when, but just in case and as soon as possible, grab as much cash from your banks."

All of the men look worried.

"What's your reasoning, boss? What's gonna happen to us?" Asks Bara.

"This is the government we're talking about. If they know me, and you by association, they're going to make our lives as impractical as possible. I predict they'll freeze our assets, take our homes, anything that's under their control, they'll take back."

All of them look visibly worried.

Kito chuckles. "I say this, however, do not lose hope. Steel yourselves, men. They might have the power of legality, but much like money, the power they have is as strong as you think it is."

Daiki looks up. "What do you mean?"

"They have might in men. But do remind me, who would win? The officer in front of your door? Or you."

All of them brim with ease. A slight malicious aura builds up in the room.

"It's going to be a long race, men. Be prepared." Hisses Kito.

Kito calms down for a sec, before continuing. "Now then, I hope you all have been taking notes. Tell me, what are each of their abilities. Daiki, you start us off."

"The spirit I fought had a tangible body. Blades sprout out of his body. Also, anytime he hit me, even though I blocked it, it still felt weird. My mind got fuzzy, I felt little less like myself, and even though I blocked most of the ki, some of it still penetrated through."

Kito sucks some air in. "Damn. It would've been useful if I got to fight him. Anyway, you, Bara?"

"I didn't have enough time to fight him, but more or less the one strike he got on me, its basically the same I felt as Daiki."

"I see... How about you, Kasumi?"

"I fought Naoki. I think you already know how he fights compared to me. But I don't think he figured out my technique."

"Fair enough. Lastly, you, Robert?"

"The bitch uses wind magic. She's very proficient, but she doesn't know my technique so I won that easily."

Kito makes a mental note. "(So my suspicion was right. I could feel the air in the factory feel different the longer she was in captivity. Good thing my bluff worked, or else she would've destroyed everything.)"

"The girl with spear is a walking- er rather, running gimmick. I can assume she injects people with poison. I don't know what type, but be best assured, just don't get hit. She's fast but she's linear. The pompadour freak on the other hand is strong, but an idiot. He uses an inferior technique. Destroy the lungs."

Kito pauses, before continuing. "These spirits... they're getting stronger. To use a corpse as a normal body. Disgusting. But effective. They had me fooled." Chuckles Kito. "If it weren't for them confirming that they were spirits, I would've gladly asked them to join us. But as you already know, we can't let those monsters roam the streets. That being said, I'm glad I paid more attention to the boy rather than killing the spirits right then and there. Now I can assure an extra three free votes. See boys? That's the power of mercy." Says Kito with a smile.

Bara loudly cheers for Kito. The others smile and holler, except for Robert.

"Now that we know what we're working with, and they don't, we're still ahead. Knowledge is power, after all. We did good today, but the future is rough. Never let up. The moment we let our guard down is the moment we all die. Remember, passivity is inaction-"

"Inaction is stagnation. Stagnation is death." Chants Daiki, Kasumi, and Bara.

Kito smiles. "Very good."

He then looks up at the hole in the ceiling. He stares at the moon. He feels the moon stare back.

"(I wonder.)" Thinks Kito to himself. "(Is that girl Naoki's sister? No... It can't be. They look nothing alike. Yet, they both seem to care for each other a lot. Hm.)"

.

.

.

Meanwhile at the Ordinance Academy, Naoki and Makoto frantically burst into Gretchen's office. Caught off guard, Gretchen hurriedly helps Naoki and Makoto drag all of the bodies into vats. Both of the students call the principal, and explain the situation to Principal Hanayama and Gretchen.

Hanayama, wearing a business suit stands in front of the students. Both of the students are in unfilled vats. Hanayama shakes his head. He has plenty of thoughts in his head, but can't decide where to start. "You all should be dead. It's a good thing you aren't but, how you went about things tonight is too risky."

"I didn't have a choice," says Naoki.

"I understand that. And for the circumstance, it was fine. But this muddles a lot of things. I'll see what I can do to hinder Kito's process in the race, but for now, you all need to take a rest. You all have a busy morning tomorrow." Hanayama sighs. "I just hope Mishima doesn't know about Kito first."

"Why is that?" Asks Makoto.

Hanayama shakes his head. "We're all on the side, but that doesn't mean we have the same ideals." His eye twitches. "And sometimes, our allies can be more of a hinderance than our enemies." He softens up and looks at both of them. "Its politics. Worry about it when you're older. Goodnight."

Footsteps careen down the hall. Naota bursts through the door. He sees Naoki in a brutalized state. He rushes over and hugs him. He clutches Naoki's head to his chest. He wants to say a lot of things, but can't muster up anything. He kisses Naoki's head and says "Goodnight."

Naoki looks at Naota's eyes. Naoki's heart skips a beat.

Red.

Naota eventually leaves.

Gretchen fills Naoki and Makoto's vats up.

Pitch black, drowning in breathable, green sludge. Both of them in fetal position within their own cells. Yet Naoki calls to Makoto through telepathy.

"Makoto."

"I'm listening."

"I'm scared."

"We're all scared."

"I didn't want to drag them into this. I didn't want any of this to happen."

"It's alright. It's the nature of the situation. I'm sure they'll understand."

"It's not their perception of me that I care about. I just didn't want to hurt anyone. I fear that Kito may be right. I tried to prove him wrong by being a good person. And now we're all in danger."

Makoto doesn't say anything for a while.

"That's life." Is the only thing she could muster.

"Life sucks. I hate this."

"We all do."

"I wish nobody had to go through this. I wish I was never born."

"Don't say that."

"To hell with suffering and growth. To hell with it all. To brag about strength and mercy. To care for it at all. It's all pointless. Material creatures aware of their nature. That's the flaw within our system. We're so smart, we're aware of concepts we're not supposed to know or care for. Care too much, you inadvertently hurt others. Care too little, you willingly hurt others. Animals. Animals."

Naoki clutches onto his legs even tighter.

Makoto wants to hold him close.

But knows she can't.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTmJz14RwA8

END OF THE BEGINNING.