Daniel swung his Ame-no-Masamune, the name of the wooden sword that won the Patreon vote, largely sideways. It was less of a swing and more of a flail. Then, as if tracing the trajectory of the sword, a huge crescent something formed in the air and immediately launched forward.
vwwoooom!!
The flying slash that Daniel unleashed traveled fast, cutting air like a hot knife on butter. At the end of its trajectory was a Japanese teenager with bright red hair, a fearless smile, and countless bruises and cuts wrapped in bandages and band-aids.
The boy didn’t try to evade the flying slash — instead he just crossed his arms to protect his face from it.
Bam!
The flying slash hit him like a mini-truck. The moment it landed on him and the ground beneath, a cloud of dust rose to the air, obscuring the vision of Daniel and the camera the American man mounted on his shoulder.
“Did that do it?” Muttered Daniel, half-exasperatedly. The chat of his Kick stream was going off, sending a lot of meme-y one-liners.
Much to Daniel’s chagrin, and his chat’s delight, the boy with the red hair walked out of the cloud of dust seemingly bearing no injury from Daniel’s attack.
“You need more guts!” The boy exclaimed.
With a dramatic “Cih!” Daniel theatrically flapped his black trench coat. Seeing that gesture being streamed through his second camera, his chat went crazy.
“You did well evading my yoruga-tensho, but your luck ran out when you met me! My name is Kurosaki Zero, and I am your grim reaper!!” Exclaimed Daniel, thrusting his wooden sword he bought from a souvenir shop in Kyoto towards the red-haired teenager. “You will taste my full power! HYAAAAAAAHH B*NKAI!!”
His mods cleverly put a censor beep the moment Daniel said the word, to avoid the demonetization and dealing with Japanese lawyers. Even so, his chat still went into an uproar with bits after bits being sent his way.
Visibly, nothing happened other than Daniel aka ‘Zero’ screaming at the top of his lungs. Once he was satisfied, Daniel once again swung his wooden sword. Diagonally, then horizontally, then vertically, then whatever direction he felt like.
Really, it was less of a swinging and more of a flailing around with a sword in hand. However, a huge crescent-shaped flying slash formed every time his sword curved, sending a barrage of blows towards the teenager.
A majority of them missed their target, however. They hit the walls and pillars and such, creating cracks and shaking the room.
Under the heavy barrage of flying slashes, the teenager retained his daunting grin. “Luck? I don’t believe in luck! It’s all guts or nothing! HAAAAHH!!”
He screamed as he made a run towards Daniel.
Seeing that, Daniel panicked and flailed his arms even faster, trying to produce as much yotsuga-whatever as he could. However, he soon slowed down, exhausted.
The red-haired teenager didn’t miss this chance. In just an instant, he already covered the distance and reached Daniel.
“Nice to meet you, Zero! I am Akagami Isshin!” Exclaimed the boy — Isshin, the glint of a wild beast in his eyes. “And I’m Peerless Under Heaven!”
Daniel’s brain shook as Isshin’s fist met his neckbeard-covered chin.
With Daniel down for the count, his chat went crazy but for a different reason than before. They blamed Isshin for cheating and giving him all sorts of slander.
What they saw next was the sight of a whole cinder block becoming loose from the cracks and hitting Isshin right on top of his head, rendering him unconscious as well.
♤♠♤♠♤
Pipi pipi pipi pipi pipi—clack
Takumi glanced at the time in his alarm clock — 5:30. With a grunt, he sluggishly woke his body up, still not used to being up this early in the morning.
After a few minutes of preparing himself, Takumi left the front door. His dad’s old jersey wasn’t enough to shield him from the chill of early Spring morning, and his old running shoes weren’t exactly in the best condition either. However, that wasn’t enough to deter him.
With a huff, Takumi started his morning jogging in the still-empty streets of Tokyo.
♤♠♤♠♤
“There’s something I need your help with.”
A week after Takumi decided to become an Omega Fighter. With that conversation as the kickstarter, the three of Takumi, Jun, and Saki started to talk with each other more frequently. Today, they were having lunch together on a bench under the big tree that was situated between two school buildings.
Stolen novel; please report.
While Jun and Saki were arguing about whose lunch tasted better, Takumi opened up with a request to the two of them. Done chewing the prosciutto-wrapped asparagus he stole from Saki’s lunch box, much to Saki’s chagrin, Jun opened his mouth.
“What is it? As your best friend for life, feel free to ask me anything.”
“Yeah, right,” Takumi replied sarcastically. Jun, however, was too busy trying to win back the meatball that Saki plundered from his lunch box.
After a deep breath and a sigh, Takumi continued.
“You see, my coach told me I need a team. It’ll be hard for a single person to make it as an Omega athlete, not to mention a student whose time is constricted. So…”
Saki and Jun paused their Battle of the Lunch and looked at Takumi. Even hidden behind his bangs, they could tell Takumi was being reserved.
Saki and Jun looked at each other then lowered their crossed chopsticks.
“So, since you don’t have any other friends, you came to us begging to join your team?”
“kgh…!”
“Jun-kun! Even if that’s the unmistakable truth, you shouldn’t phrase it like that. Poor Takumi-kun, his social skills are practically zero, it must’ve taken him a lot of courage just to ask us that.”
“gah…!”
“Saki-chan…you can be quite ruthless…"
Pointed by Jun whom she reproached, Saki turned to Takumi only to find him spewing blood from his mouth due to the emotional damage he’s taken.
“Hawawa…I’m sorry I didn’t mean that!” Saki fluttered in panic, hands going everywhere in the air. Meanwhile, Takumi was muttering “no friends…zero social skills…” repeatedly under his breath.
“So, about that team,” Jun brought the topic back up. Hearing that, Takumi immediately fixed his posture, his earlier woeful demeanor was nowhere to be seen, earning a comment from Saki; “he recovered fast!”
“Specifically, what are we supposed to do?”
“The thing is, I don’t know,” Takumi admitted, shuffling the content of his lunch box all the while, “I thought I just need to show up and fight when they call me, but when I consulted about that with a senior that I met in the training hall, she scolded me, saying that this showbiz, not a brawl between wild dogs.”
“Hmm…”
Jun put fingers on his chin, similarly confused. It was Saki who figured it out, raising her voice with “Oh, I see!”
“Takumi-kun, do you use social media?”
“Not at all, why?”
Takumi answered Saki’s sudden question, but Saki already fished out her phone and was fiddling with it by then, as though she had already known the answer. She then showed the screen of her phone to Takumi and Jun, and both of them leaned towards her to see better. What she showed was the homepage of a photo-based social media. There were pictures of people, presumably celebrities due to how many hearts their posts had, sharing slices of their high-profile lives or teasing some kind of project.
The moment Jun saw it, he let out an understanding exclaim; “Aah…” Takumi, however, still hadn’t caught up with the two.
“This is my Instagram. My feed is filled with reels of Omega stars that I follow. There are also TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Twitch. Omega athletes don’t just fight in battles, they are also internet celebrities. Look, even Ice Queen, Korea’s number one esper, has a follower count of 500 million.”
“So you’re saying that Takumi needs a team because it will be hard for one person to handle all those social media alone.”
Hearing Saki’s explanation, Jun made his observation. Takumi, on the other hand, was pondering about something silently.
“Strictly speaking, some people do manage their own social media. But, if we’re thinking about making PV and other marketing gimmicks, then it’ll be hard for a single person to do it all alone. Not to mention, if Takumi-kun wanted to stream his fight in his own YouTube or Twitch channel, he wouldn’t be able to moderate the chat while he is fighting. The team is to support Takumi-kun behind the scenes.”
“Ooh! You sure know a lot, Saki-chan!”
Jun clapped his hands. Saki puffed her chest at that, exclaiming “eheum!”
“I’m not a fan of Omega for two years for nothing. I know everything there is to know about Omega.”
Saki claimed proudly. That was when Takumi, who had been silent, opened his mouth.
“…I think I can ask mom for that. She used to work in PR, she knows the ins and outs of social media.”
Takumi mostly spoke to himself, but his words were heard by Saki and Jun just fine. The two looked at each other, seemingly conversing with only their gazes, before Jun sighed.
“You know, Takumi. Being the friend of a superstar sounds good and all, but being the team of a superstar? Now that sounds awesome.”
“Jun…?”
Takumi hadn’t figured out why Jun told him that out of nowhere, when Saki also suddenly said something to him.
“He’s right, Takumi-kun. We talked you into this, it’s only fair that we accompany you every step of the way. Besides, if I’m in your team, that means there’s a chance I can meet with all my fave Omega athletes!”
“So that’s your real aim, you crafty woman.”
Saki showed glittery eyes on that prospect, earning a sigh from Jun. Takumi clammed up for a moment, then after pooling some courage, he asked them; “Are you two sure about this?”
“Count me in, partner,” Jun raised a thumb’s up, showing a toothy grin. Simultaneously, Saki puffed up her chest, answering with a; “Of course.”
“Thanks,” Takumi told them with a smile. A slight breeze lifted his bangs just then, revealing his face to the two of them, leaving them speechless.
♤♠♤♠♤
Taking the bus heading outside Tokyo, Takumi, Saki, and Jun dropped off in a seemingly inauspicious urban neighborhood.
“Are you sure this is the place, Takumi?”
Jun asked, looking around anxiously. Saki seemed similarly jumpy, but also excited.
“Try not to look around too much. If they get suspicious of you, they might drive you away.”
“O-okay.”
Both Saki and Jun followed Takumi’s advice, choosing to focus on their own feet instead as they followed after Takumi.
Jun, however, still couldn’t help himself but look around. What he saw was rows and rows of public houses, with occasional middle aged women perhaps on their way to buy groceries for dinner preparation. A small park where children were playing with a dog. Trees, swaying in the wind.
Everything was normal beyond words — which only deepened the feeling of displacement he harbored. He swore something would jump out from the shadows, or perhaps rains of bullets would shower him if he took any wrong steps. And every time, it was just his own paranoia.
Saki, in comparison, seemed to handle herself really well. …although, it looked to Jun that her excitement outweighed her anxiety, that Omega obsessed girl.
When Takumi told them their destination, Jun had envisioned that they would go to a place heavily guarded with battle-hardened JSDF soldiers, encircled by an 8-meter deep moat and electrified fences. Instead, they had come to a very normal, very boring neighborhood just outside the Tokyo ward area.
Jun felt stupid being so paranoid.
“…are you sure this is the place, Takumi?”
Jun repeated the question. However, Takumi didn’t answer him right away; he stopped in front of one of the many public houses in the street. On the plank of the house was written the name Sago.
“We’re here,” said Takumi, indicating the house that seemed no different than the rest.
“It’s this?”
Jun looked doubtful. Saki, however, looked so ecstatic there were stars in her eyes.
“So it’s here?! The only place supernatural powers can exist, the EXP Zone?!”