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2024-10-29 19:42:56Chapter 1
6 MONTHS LATER
RYUU
… I hate it here.
“Well then why don’t you go ahead and resign? ‘Wong’s Books and Stationaries’ doesn’t even need your lazy ass.
Hmm? Did she hear that?
“You come in here every day, later than you came in the day before. You don’t clean, sort or look after anything. But at the end of every month, you come asking for your monthly bonus.”
“About that, Miss Wong. November’s ending today. I was wondering if I could—”
“Well I oughta—”
“Ma’am, please take it easy.”
The sixty-year-old was held back by a customer before she could reach me. “Sir, I think you should leave.”
“Let me go. Let go of me” Wong kept screaming, trying unsuccessfully to claw at my face.
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
“And don’t you dare come back. You hear me? Don’t you dare come back!”
I pushed passed the transparent glass doors of the bookshop and they slammed behind me.
Job seventeen… fired.
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“H-Hey Ryuu, you’re back. With the same old weary demeanor, I see.”
“I just need…”
“A favor? Again?” Jared took the words right out of my mouth, and I sighed in response.
“You can’t keep expecting me to give you free food every time you show up from work."
“But J—”
“You’re about to bring up the alley incident again, aren’t you?”
“They could’ve killed you if I didn’t—"
“It doesn’t automatically mean you get free chips, chicken and a soda whenever you show up here man. Sooner or later, my boss is gonna find out, and when he does, I’m d—”
“I lost my job today, okay. If I had the money, I’d pay for the food.” I took a seat in the empty café.
“You got fired… again?”
“I didn’t say I got fired, I said I lost my job.”
“Well what’s the—”
“Can I just get some food?” I managed to look him in the eyes this time. He was one of those people that were probably way older than they looked.
Twenty-five? Maybe twenty-six. His buzz cut would usually take a couple more years off his face.
“Hmphhh. Let me see if I can get something from the back real quick” he said, and I forced up a smile.
“That’s why you’re my ni—”
“How many times have I told you, you can’t say that?”
“Oh, sorry. What? I can’t eat here anymore?”
I noticed the food he’d warmed was wrapped in a takeaway bag.
“Have you forgotten that those weirdos use this place at night for their ‘meetings’? You have to head out before they get here. I don’t want any issues with those—”
“Who are you calling a weirdo?”
The doors of the café sprung open, and I turned to see who it was. A light-skinned, fluffy coat-wearing, middle-aged woman made her way towards Jared and I with the weirdest, most pompous look on her face.
“Jennifer, didn’t know it was 8p.m. already” Jared turned to her.
“Yeah, well it is. And you’re kinda encroaching into our time here.”
“We were just leaving” he dragged me by the collar, ending the conversation as quickly as it started.
“You’re stealing from the café, I see” she stopped us in our tracks.
“Fuck” Jared muttered. “I have no idea what you’re—”
“Don’t lie to me, I see the leftovers in your buddy’s bag.”
“Hmm?” I looked down and saw the strip of chips and chicken still dangling.
“Your boss wouldn’t appreciate that, now would he?”
“Bloody hell” he mouthed, even more frustrated. “What do you want Jennifer?”
We both knew exactly what she wanted.
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“Hey Jared, could you get us another drink?”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Me too” I added, and his frustration doubled.
He pelted an unamused look in Jennifer’s direction, and she just shrugged in response. “Sure, coming right up” he clenched his teeth and headed to the counter.
Apparently, Jennifer’s group of weirdos wars a cult of middle-aged adventure seekers that believed in the existence of fairytale paranormal beings.
Fanatics.
I couldn’t last a minute without hearing some wild, weird, but oddly intriguing detail about something that sounded like it was pulled out of a novel.
“Here’s your iced tea, dickhead.”
“What you getting mad at me for?” I remarked.
“From what I heard, they have the ability to single out a lone power from the beast while in human form” One piped up. “That’d explain why we’ve not gotten any sightings of them in centuries.”
“Don’t be dumb Freiza. How would they pick just one out of almost thirty abilities? Flight? Speed? Fire? Where’d they start?”
“Apparently, only the strongest of them are able to master the craft.”
“Sorry, what were we talking about again?” Jennifer piped up after a sip of her coffee.
“Dragon Conjuras.”
*SPLATT*
My drink slipped out of my grasp and clattered down to the ground when I heard that. I hadn’t noticed that the ruckus had gotten everyone staring in my direction.
“Jesus, Ryuu. Now I gotta clean that up too” Jared whined as he disappeared into the back in search of a mop.
“Are you okay?” one asked.
How… How did they know anything like my kind existed?
“I think he’s one of those guys that underrate the abilities of the Conjuras”
“Underrate? Those guys are barely top ten. If anything, we giving them too much credit” another added.
“Exactly. At the end of the day, they might not be as strong as they appear” Freiza commented.
“And what would make you say that?” Jennifer seemed genuinely intrigued.
“Well, for one, they’re not even immortal. They can die like any other human.”
“They’re still twelve times stronger than the average human. Six times as durable, eight times as fast, and four times as smart” I ‘muttered’.
“Huh?” Jennifer was stunned… and so was every other person in attendance.
“H… How did you know that?”
I’d just realized that everyone was looking at me with the same shocked expression on their faces.
“Uhh… I just hear a lot of stuff I guess” I tried backing my way out of this one.
“I heard that just like every paranormal being, their powers can be acquired” a different character piped up. The voice was hazy at first, but it definitely struck a chord.
“Hey Pal, it’s almost three in the morning, the café is—”
“What? You don’t have space for one more guest?”
Now, I definitely remembered that voice. Even though it was six months ago, it was still fresh in my memory.
I got up from my seat, and turned to face the character behind me.
He’d made absolutely no attempt to change a single detail about himself since I last saw him. The same blonde striped hair, the same ominous red and black coat, the same annoying smile, and that same katana he’d used to kill my brother.
“Hey Ryuu” he smiled. “Been looking for—”
*ZOOMMMM*
I charged at him with an outrageous gust of speed and wound a powerful right. The second it connect—
“Time loop… attenuate.”
Hehh?
He watched me sprint towards him with that annoying smile on his face. He’d tilted his head to the side, and my arm was still soaring through to reach his face. What the hell? Was he that fast? Or did he just—
“Slow down time?” he wound a right of his own… “I did.”
*POWWWWWWW*
*SMASSHHHHHH*
The force from his punch made me crash through the counter. “Come on Ryuu, you promised to make this fun. Don’t let me down.” I heard his footsteps trail towards me.
“What the fuck? What are you?”
Was that Freiza? Shit! I’d forgotten there were humans here? Get up Ryuu. Before this—
“Steel factor… Augment.”
*SLINGGGGGG*
I’d barely wobbled to my feet when the sound of his katana piercing through flesh struck a very familiar chord.
“You… you killed them!” my eyes trailed across the lifeless café.
“It’s kinda your fault, isn’t it? This could be over if you just—”
“Katana?” a familiar voice echo up, and we both glanced at its source.
“Jared?” I muttered.
“Remember me? It’s been a while since I saw you last, ya dick.”
“Fuck! You—”
That was the first time I’d seen an emotion other than uncanny cheeriness in the eyes of this jackass.
His footing quickly changed the second he drew his Katana, and he charged at Jared.
I had to do something. Another person was going to die because of—
“Base Card…” Jared muttered with a blank card tusked perfectly between his ring and index fingers. The hell did that come from? “…White Dwarf”
*SIZZLE*
“Ah fuck!”
*SPLAT*
Before my oblivious eyes, he was encircled by spiraling streaks of white energy. They blazed around his body in circular fashion, and got louder with every revolution. His panic became screams, and his screams, wails.
3.7 seconds was the timeline for this.
After that, he exploded, and his blood splattered everywhere.
What the fuck?
“Oi, Ryuu” Jared emotionlessly said. “We might want to leave now.”
“Y… you killed him? How did you… What did you…?”
“Told you this was gonna happen” another distant voice popped up.
“J… Jennifer?”
I still saw the blade mark through the front of her neck.
It began to seal up.
Where the fuck am I? And what the hell is going on?
“Ryuu!” Jared called out once more. “You might want to speed this up?”
“Who… who the hell are you guys?”
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Chapter 19
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Chapter 15RYUUThe second he pulled its blade out of me, I clattered to the ground, sinking to my knees. My vision went blurry. No… not again.“I thought they said you had potential? What’s this? I didn’t even break a sweat” he held my face up, and I felt my lungs collapse. "Turns out you’re the weak one”He sent a powerful right for my face, and smacked the consciousness out of my body. “So, who wants to avenge little Mr.—”*POWWWWWWWW*I had to get it right this time, and I did. With the most powerful force I could muster, I punched him the second he backed me, sinking four knuckles straight into his spine. *THUDDDDD*Hs body slammed into a tree, and I forced myself back up.“You didn’t really think… dodging your Kusarigama… was my plan, did you? ” I coughed out more balls of blood while simultaneously trying to add pressure to my ‘punctured’ stomach.I’d noticed something about the way I fought. The first time at Phantasm Duel was probably a coincidence, but it happened again d
