As I step out of the locker room and made my way to the arena, I could hear the announcer beginning to hype up the crowd for my appearance. Well...it's not exactly supposed to be me, Cyclone White since I'm just pretending to be someone else. Also, it doesn't help the fact that I'm disguising myself as a girl that reminds me a lot of another girl that I know of.

The announcer had called Ethereal to come out and step into the arena, that's my Que. I got out with as much confidence as I could muster up as I was making my way to the arena. As I was on the way there, my mind started to reflect back on the time when my mother was talking about what would happen if I was born a girl. I didn't know why that memory suddenly decided to appear at the worse time to be honest. My mother even had a name planned for me, and it was Zephyr. Here I thought I wouldn't somehow be called Cyclone Zephyr but now it's a freaking reality and I don't like what the future holds for me.

In any case, my opponent was already waiting for me on the other side of the arena. It was a guy, he was wearing a what seems to be a traditional Kung Fu outfit. He also has a black belt, which means that I have to be a lot more careful against this experienced fighter. But then again, nobody even noticed when I paused the time against that 'robot' on the last round. I might as well win this invitational if I'm planning to cheat through this.

"Here goes nothing..." I said to myself in a voice that I'm totally unfamiliar with thanks to Lin's magic card.

The Black Belt suddenly spoke to me before we start, "My name is Hoku and I'm going to win this tournament!"

I replied back to him, "Pleasure to meet you, Hoku. May the best fighter win." I bowed to him in respect.

He bowed back to me and took on his fighting stance as I prepared Ethereal's rifle. As I was preparing, I can't help but notice that the Emperor had arrived just to watch the final round of the Koi Dragon Invitational. Even more so, several of his subordinate were also there including a person who seems to be wearing an armour that has a familiar atmosphere. I couldn't tell what it was from this distance but I kind of got a weird feeling about that person. But I didn't have much time to worry about that as the gong has been strike, signalling the match to begin.

"I wonder how tough are you, girl..." Hoku carefully moved around as he observes me, waiting for my first move.

If what he was planning was to wait for me then I'll gladly oblige to what he seeks by cocking the rifle and pulled the trigger. I never really had a lot of experiences with guns so my aiming was kind of bad. In which, resulted to me missing my shot by about...a hundred centimetres away than I expected.

"What are you doing?" Hoku was confused, "I barely even move dodging that bullet. What are you planning?" Hoku was being very careful.

I laughed to myself deep inside as I unexpectedly made Hoku think that I purposely miss that shot by a long shot. He now thinks that I was probably planning to surprise him with my 'amazing' sharpshooting talent.

Then, out of nowhere he begins took on a stance in which he was seen charging up for something. Then suddenly, a ball of blue light appeared from his right hand. He quickly throws it toward me. I manage to roll away just in time thanks to my quick reflexes. However, was that magic he was using? Isn't that illegal?

"What was that?" I asked him.

"That is Ki. It isn't the same as Infinitum Energy. It is the very energy that we use every day to perform any task. My Ki just happens to be awakened to whole different states thanks to my arduous years of training."

"So it's not magic and this is fair play?"

He nodded and continued, "Basically that and this is to prove to you that I will definitely win this tournament and prove to everyone that I am the best fighter in Nihon!"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"In Nihon? Why not dream bigger?"

"I haven't reached that level yet so I'm not aiming something higher than being the best in this land first and foremost."

I kind of disappointed a little after hearing his dream. He should really aim for something higher if he ever wanted to pass through his current trial. This reminds me of myself. I haven't dreamed big enough for whatever reason. It just makes me sick for some reason. Maybe it's the feeling of hating yourself. Especially after seeing a person that seems to have the same level of goal. I'm not really the type to go all out in many things but if that's the only way for me to aim high, then that's what I'm going to do. If I'm going to discreetly use my ancient ability, I might as well use it to the best of my ability without making anyone notice it. This especially works because stopping the time doesn't seem to make anyone notice my ability at all.

I whispered to myself, "If I already cheated on the last round...I might as well cheat on this one just for the heck of it." I placed Ethereal's rifle to my back and brought out my dagger.

I quickly made contact to Hoku as he quickly dodged all of my slashes by blocking my arm. He managed to throw me off and made me drop my dagger. He waited for me to stand back up. He seems to be enjoying this as he mocked me with a hand gesture, saying to 'come at me'. I quickly got up and wickedly smiled at him as I paused the time and made my way to him. I unpause the time and swiftly swept his feet, causing him to fall to the ground with his weigh.

He smiled back at me as he realize that the battle was getting interesting. We exchanged multiple blows as time went on. Hoku uses his Ki Energy to destroy me while I continuously used my Time Manipulating abilities every time I had a close call against his attack.

"This is going nowhere, is it?" Hoku stated the situation, "Looks like I have to go all out now."

I didn't know what he was planning but I'm sure it is not good for me.

"This is my Final Attack!" Hoku begins curl up both of his hand into a small circle and began to charge his Ki Energy into that single point.

The small blue circle started to become bigger as time went on. At the same time as well, he screamed to the top of his lung in order to collect all of his Ki to a single place. It doesn't seem to be boding well for me as the entire arena started to shake as Hoku was still charging up his energy ball.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!" Hoku screams was as loud as announcer's microphone was.

His voice started to echo and the trees nearby started to sway left and right chaotically. Everything was starting to get dire for me as I was only able to prepare for the worse but it immediately made over abundantly clear once I waited for a few more moment...

"That's a long charge..." I commented.

Hoku then said, "It takes a while. Don't worry about it." He then continued his screams.

I decided to wait it out. And of course, I waited and waited until it was already 10 minutes past his initial announcement of using this ability.

"Are you serious...?" I said to myself in a very annoyed tone. "Unbelievable."

As I finished saying that, my eyes were directly watching over that one subordinate that I was talking about earlier. That person got up from his chair as he raised one of his hand and clenched it as if he was signalling an order of sort. And that he did as I suddenly saw a bunch of suspicious looking creature on top of the open arena, waiting for something.

Then, in a blink of an eye, the ominous person puts down his hand and immediately, dark cloud begins to shroud the entire arena. Lin suddenly appeared next to me and told me,

"Something is not right here, White."

"Definitely, it's something related to that guy in that Shogun Armour."

"What do you mean?"

"He has the same atmosphere as the other Chaotic Champions..."

Yumiko then suddenly appears as well, "And that you are correct, White. You better do something about this. I think he is planning to steal something..."

"Steal...no way...He's planning to steal the Mikazuki Blade?!"

Yumiko nodded and disappears into her portal. I wasn't able to ask her more with how quick she went away. I shifted my view as Lin gave me another card that enables me to have extreme vision even in this thick black smoke.

"That's Kitsuneki, huh?" I paused the time as best as I could but my area of effect has been decreased to thanks to the previous battle against Hoku. I couldn't make it in time and immediately, chaos ensues as The Chaotic Champions grabs onto the legendary crescent moon blade.

He then announced to himself as he raised the blade, "With this, The Chaos Beast that has been trapped inside The Rift of Time shall finally return at last! The Almighty Gashadokuro shall return to this world! The Yokai Rebellion begins with this!"

As he was about to pull the blade out, he immediately retracted his plan and escapes as soon as he realizes that I was there near him. He quickly got away with the help of his fellow Yokai. As he said, the turmoil between the humans and the Yokai...begins now...

TO BE CONTINUED