The waves called both Kazuki and Hikari to the scene where they witnessed a fight of two superhumans.
Shockwaves continued to roll out with each punch and block until Renji slipped, a fist from Takashi connected well with his stomach in a violent expulsion of smoky shadow the effect launched Renji a few feets back.
Then swiftly Renji crashed landed on his back and like a cat in reverse, flipped himself to land on us feet.
Takashi took in a slow breath. " Goodbye hunter" he jumped to deliver a fatal shadow charged punch but got his attack fouled by a shield Renji hastily created —the same shield Takashi used in him earlier.
He'd done it by mirroring the rapid hand movements he'd seen Takashi do earlier and in the split second it took for Takashi's hand to hit the shield, a flare of surprise crossed between the young master's eyes.
The resulting explosion of shadows tossed the young master like a catapulted rag doll. In it's aftermath Renji picked all three marbles scattered on the floor and proudly presented them to Master Kazuki.
" Like stealing candy from a baby" Renji smirked. " Doesn't surprise me that you probably know how that actually feels like" Hikari taunted.
" Can someone help me here?" Takashi stuttered in between convulsions. " The convulsions will leave you in a few minutes Master or less if you can manage it" Renji replied unconcerned and earned a smile from Hikari.
It was Master Kazuki who finally stopped Takashi's agony with a series of hard taps on his joints to loosen the contractions.
" So what's your assessment of him?" Master Kazuki inquired. " He's good to go, will need to work on improving some weak spots in his fighting style and learn to tailor his strength to meet certain conditions though" Takashi grudgingly commented.
" Next is the second stage" Master Kazuki said…
***
Meanwhile at an Undisclosed Location on an off-grid outskirt of the city…
Hanzo came awake on a battered bed in an old manor. He spot up at a start and surveyed his surroundings, taking in the old fittings, cobwebs and dust that coated all surfaces. It was very obviously abandoned.
A sight of his reflection in a jagged mirror caught his attention, curious, he leaned in to see the face of an ancient twisted mask of ivory stare back at him.
" Welcome back to the living Hanzo" The reflection's voice boomed. " Who are you?" Hanzo asked forcing some menace into his voice to hid his fear.
" Your redemption Hanzo, I am but a forgotten lord who seeks to be remembered and I find you useful in my quest. Free me from my eternal prison and I shall grant you the chance to get your revenge"
Hanzo immediately started seeing flashes of possible realities: a scene of him standing over the Kokuryūkai base ablaze, a scene of him atop a pile of the leaders of each current and finally him as the overlord of the seven currents.
" Your leaders left you all to die on that mission and even ordered that you get blown up, this is your chance to avenge your friends. Now I will give you the power to control leaders"
Hanzo gave a yell of pain from the raw power surging through his veins. " Say my name so that you may be the extension of my will on earth"
Suddenly Hanzo's pain stopped and when he opened his eyes they flashed a demonic green. " Shura!"
An almost painful release of power surged through him while his body twisted in tue to a shockwave that rolled out.
***A week later***
Master Kazuki and Hikari descended down the stone steps leading down into the base's underground archives.
" Our time is narrowing, he should be ready by now" Master Kazuki muttered. " Sir it takes a while to understand the ancient texts of the rank A books, you often tell us that it took you at least seven years" Hikari replied.
" Yeah but for a carrier of the Abyssal Covenant, that time is inapplicable. I should know for I am a living witness of someone like him" Kazuki's eyes were wistful while he pressed on a matching stone block on the wall.
It depressed with a soft click activating a mechanism that opened a section of the wall leading up to a reinforced steel door. " Did you know such a person before master?"
" Yes Hikari, He happened to be my closest friend. We were brothers in all but blood now I'm sure he has a heavy heart now that he knows that his son is now bearing the same burden he tried to fight against.
Renji's bloodline had always been the carrier of the powers of a primordial god due to a pact made a few millennia ago, almost every ancestor of his had been a demon tyrant down to his grandfather. His father Haruto Kurogane a member of the Ikazuchi-dan then. had to kill his own father when he tried to wreck the seven currents. But then he inherited the curse when the Ikazuchi-dan found out he was thrown out and then became a target. I was only a Beta operative of the Kokuryūkai then so try as I might, I couldn't help him. On his own he avoided the guilds while continuously trying to prove that something bad could be turned into something good, he saved us from a catastrophic crisis and then sealed his child's power then went further to lock fragments of his mastery of the seven currents to the grandmasters until what remained were below their usual level and therefore more manageable.
" That was the fall of the Abyss, Haruto kept his son a secret only to be revealed when the world needs a demon to stop an even greater demon… and that time is now"
He tapped in a combination on the numeric keypad that electronically unlocked the door. He'd had the underground archives modernized a bit under his leadership so incandescent lighting rather than lanterns flooded the room when Kazuki opened the door.
The underground archives led to a door that opened yet into another room. Kazuki approached this door carefully now with Hikari in tow.
" Renji's bursts of power are stronger than the ones I remember of my friend but Renji has the same quality I saw in his father, rock hard determination and resolve. A man can do anything with those."
He ushered her to a side of the door away from the blast radius he had expected would follow. A quick turn on the door knob pushed the door open with a blast of darkness thicker than the light in the room.
Then the blast subsided slowly to a black orb rapidly spinning on its axis in the room. Hikari stared in surprise at Master Kazuki who gave a slight smile.
" Here's the youngest master to attain the rank A"