Chapter 10: 7TH FIGHT: THE MONSTER I MET

7th FIGHT: THE MONSTER I MET

-XOXOXOX-

---

-XOXOXOX-

Heading home on a so-called 'fine day', the brown-eyed boy decided to take a little walk around town, as he took in the scenery of the place he lived in, the dilapidated buildings painted a rust-grey, and the people that lived there.

Though in a much better mood than the days prior, he still felt odd for some reason.

And it wasn't because of what happened before, in which he realized that he wasn't just a frog in a small well, but a tadpole in a wide ocean, but rather the fact that there was a lingering presence he felt lurking behind him whenever he took a step almost anywhere.

'This is getting really annoying' He thought. 'Just what the hell is going on?'.

Stopping at a restaurant named 'Just Eat Damnit', the brown-eyed boy spotted from the corner of his eyes a familiar face talking to someone.

It was the 'Old Man' Shintarou talking to an adult man with a ponytail and some stubble on his chin wearing a cloak, and while he didn't know who he was, he could tell that he was powerful just like Shintarou.

'The feeling the strong give off, huh...'

Moving forward, he witnessed many fights and problems go down, and from seeing every one of them, he had the same peculiar thought.

'Their movements... They feel a bit slow, no?' 

It was as if the fighters were moving in slow motion every time he focused and he could spot all of the wasted movements and poor positioning of their weight and feet.

He realized that after he saw Shintarou and his friend Kiyoshi fight, he was better able to recognize the caliber of others quite easily now.

'With enough time, can I reach that level?'

It was certainly a development he was looking forward to.

Now near his new home, its color being the same tired old dull-grey, he chanced across the usual sight.

-It was a druggie begging for his daily fix.

As the dealer collected the money from the druggie, the boy could hear the dealer deride and mock the man thoroughly for even buying this 'shit' as he called it.

"..." Narrowing his eyes, a mean glint shone in the boy's hazel-brown eyes as his lips tugged up a bit at the corners.

Talking about the fortune that he was amassing, the drug dealer cackled as he spoke about the power he would have once he moved up the ranks, all of the money and women he would have, but as he was showing off, the brown-eyed boy had snatched the money and dashed away, shocking the drug dealer.

"Hey, you! Give that back you little shit-!" The drug dealer pathetic cries echoed.

Quickly losing the drug dealer within a crowd, the brown-eyed boy had snickered to himself as he gleefully counted the money he had gotten.

'Hahahaha! A fool and his money are easily parted, don't they say?' The brown-eyed boy snickered. 'You should'a know better, Mr. Adult. You should never, ever, ever let your guard down, especially in a place like this!'

But as the brown-eyed boy ran away, he had passed by a certain kid with seaweed-like black hair and some fierce eyes, and they had locked eyes for a split second before passing each other as the man had taken off, chasing after the brown-eyed kid.

Thinking to himself about the scene that had previously unfolded in front of him, the brown-eyed boy chuckled. "In a way, whoever got the supply, also got the power, huh…"

-XOXOXOX-

---

-XOXOXOX-

Not so far away, there sat two men in a shop drinking alcohol.

The first was the ever so massively muscled man named Shintarou who was speaking to a man with well-defined musculature, not at all hidden by the cloak he wore over a tank top as he had long black hair which he tied into a ponytail that hung over his right shoulder. The man he was talking to also possessed confident eyes with pronounced tear troughs and thin facial hair on his chin.

"Ho? Is that true? So you've really found yourself a disciple?" Shintarou asked, down another shot of beer.

"Yea, he's a real fierce one…" The man complained "And anti-social to boot! A brat with a real mean glare in his eyes, but he's an interesting brat nonetheless!"

"So I decided to name him after two of the districts is this joint, sorta like my name a bit, y'see?"

Shintarou let out a chuckle, "Suits you to a 'T', since you can't stay outta trouble to save your life!"

"Yea, yea, whatever." The man waved him off. "You of all people can't say that when I heard you're taking on all these crazy jobs, it's like 'you're' the one who doesn't treasure his life, hahaha!" 

Sharing a laugh as they drank, the atmosphere seemed to be quite comfy, but that was only for a brief moment before the man decided to bring something unrelated up.

"But c'mon, man. Shintarou, huh? Couldn't get something less generic? I bet some woman gave you that name and you ran off with it! You've always been a softie when it comes to a pretty face." The man snickered.

"Screw off! My name is just fine!" Shintarou said, defending his namesake. "But seriously, after what happened back then, it's been rare for the rest of us to even meet up nowadays…"

"---Especially since what happened back then…"

Suddenly gaining a serious look in his eyes, Shintarou stared ahead at the man.

"So in that case, tell me…" Shintarou spoke. "Just what the hell is going on, what's so darned important to the point that you've even got to come to talk to a guy whose long distanced himself from all of this shit?"

"Huh, Tokita Niko?"

Staring at Shintarou for a while, the man named Tokita Niko finally spoke.

"Well you see, it's like this…"

-XOXOXOX-

---

-XOXOXOX-

While a serious discussion went underway, a certain brown-eyed boy had found himself in quite the predicament

'Tch, I knew something was up." The brown-eyed boy thought, sprinting throughout the narrow alleyways of the streets within The Inside.

He'd been feeling it for a while now, from days ago till now, some sort of oppressive presence lurking nearby that peered at him and was able to see him when he couldn't.

And now this presence is following him

It was like a one-way mirror in which only the one spying was able to see through, and he didn't like that.

'Just you wait!' The brown-eyed boy thought. 'Even If I can't sense you, don't think that I won't be going down without a fight!'

The boy lived in danger for many, many years by either fighting or stealing. He wouldn't allow himself to be made a fool of by someone he couldn't even see.

'And if you won't stop chasing me, then I'll have to try and make you.' The brown-eyed boy thought, executing various agile maneuvers in an attempt to lose the pursuer in either the alleyways or the crowds, but it seemed as if instead of being lost the pursuer had only gotten even closer to the boy

"You've got to be kidding me!" The boy exclaimed. 'Now I know it for sure! It really is the same figure from days ago!'

The boy realized that if this keeps up then he would only get tired and turn himself into a sitting duck for the perpetrator, so he decided to fight.

So ducking around a corner, he gripped the knives he had been given by the three children and when the figure turned around the corner, he slashed out with all of his might.

-SWING!-

It was a slash so powerful that even for the young boy's age, he could definitely give a life-threatening wound to an adult if not kill them, and that was what he was aiming for.

-The jugulars, then the heart.

"!"

You are reading story Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist at novel35.com

-CRACK!, CRACKLE!-

'You have got to be kidding me… How is that even possible?'

'The knives… It… It had shattered…'

'And on the man's skin at that!'

Chuckling the big figure tutted as he continued to move closer to the boy.

Not letting up, the boy decided to use several more of his tricks, tossing the fist-sized bags filled with sand and glass at the man, but it was to no avail, as the man had just slapped them away without the bag bursting nor tearing before simply moving on.

'Tch! That won't work either, huh?'

Now trying to gain leverage over the man, the brown-eyed boy kicked several forms of debris in the path where the man would position his foot, hoping to trip him, but the man had only stomped down, sending the wood and whatever trash the boy could throw at him, sputtering off into a myriad of splinters.

And as the brown-eyed boy quickly threw random knives to throw the man off as he continued to use his tricks, he slowly yet surely grew more frustrated.

'Why…' He muttered.

'Why isn't this working?! My life's at stake here!"

Running out of any more tricks the boy realized that he was going to have to fight this one out with bare hands, and as the shadowed figure came closer he remembered one thing that he had been unconsciously using in his fights from the very beginning.

'Huh? W-What's this?'

'A forest... A tree... And that damned monster...?'

It was like a dam in his head burst, a dam containing a waterfall of repressed memories, slowly opening up on that fateful day...

-XOXOXOX-

---

-? FOREST-

---

-XOXOXOX-

In a lush green forest where nature itself seemed to be at peace, two people were standing in a wide-open space.

It was a scowling brown-eyed boy with raven black hair, and a certain violent red-haired man.

The man standing next to the brown-eyed boy had violent reddish-brown hair and eyes, standing around one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, around six-foot-three, or possibly even higher, and was considered to be a man many would say to not even be human, but instead a strong creature of pure violence.

Standing in front of the tree the man with violently wavy red hair began to speak, his brash voice echoing in the boy's eardrums "Now listen 'ere, brat. The principle of it is really simple when you get down to it, and there is only one thing you have to remember."

Glaring at the man with the most hateful glare he could have mustered, the boy continued to listen nonetheless.

"First you gotta make a proper fist. To do that you have to start by extending all four fingers and pressing them tightly together." The violent red-headed man spoke.

"Then as you clench them together, you position yourself real good before…"

-swisssh-

"!"

The man positioned himself before striking forth at the tree with great intensity and power. As his fist moved it seemed to rend the air, cutting it apart in its wake as it traveled towards the tree.

And when it finally reached the tree…

-CRACK!, BAAM!-

It cracked and demolished the middle of the tree, blasting chunks of it everywhere as the upper half of the tree slowly fell to the ground, landing with a loud resounding thud.

And as the leaves danced throughout the air, the brown-eyed boy couldn't help but be shocked as he saw an act that could only be described as something 'superhuman'.

'This isn't normal… Who even is this guy!?' The brown-eyed boy thought, shocked to his very core.

The move wasn't anything extraordinary, in fact, it was one of the most normal fighting moves that could exist in martial arts; more specifically 'Karate'.

-It was a 'Straight-Punch', or as it was titled in karate; 'Seiken-Zuki'

It was one of the simplest of all applications of karate that had existed, and because of its simplicity it had worked wonders within a fight, being able to become a technique that could be used to land finishing blows within a fight at the very best.

-And this technique was what the man had taught him.

-XOXOXOX-

---

-XOXOXOX-

Clenching fist his as the man approached, the brown-eyed boy lowered himself in a defensive position, his eyes looking at the shadowed figure for advantages he could use, and he aimed to give a strike, a strike he remembered seeing from a man he had rather not being with at all.

'With this technique I learned from that damned monster of a man, I'll knock the living daylights out of you!' The boy thought as his fist danced through the wind.

'Choke on this!'

-WHAM!-

A sharp thudding sound was made, as the man had easily caught with his open palm, deeply shocking the boy.

"...What?"

But judging by the faint murmuring of the man, it seemed as if he was pleasantly surprised.

"Hoho~ I was wondering if you'd forgotten since you been playing with all of those toys, but it seems that you did remember after all," The man said grinning wildly. "Nice, it's shaping up to be a real good fist…"

And as the figure stepped out of the shadows the boy was able to clearly see his face

It was him, the man that had caused everything, the man who caused nearly all of his problems from the very beginning.

He would never forget the familiar countenance of the man who had haunted his dreams for the last few years, or for worse the man who had tossed him inside this shithole for the fun of it.

The boy's expression had turned into that of shock then slowly turned into unbridled anger, as he cooled it down, focusing on guarding against what the man was about to do.

The man before him was the same man from before, the same extremely well-built man that stood around one hundred and ninety centimeters, with an extremely muscular physique and thick reddish-brown wavy hair, thick eyebrows, and reddish-brown eyes decorating his crown.

And as the two had given each other space, the expression of the wild-looking man had morphed into a maniacal grin as he clenched his fist.

"It's been a while, brat." The wild red-haired man said. "Why don't let your papa give you a loving hug?"

-XOXOXOX-

---

7th FIGHT: THE MONSTER I MET END

---

-XOXOXOX-

You can find story with these keywords: Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist, Read Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist, Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist novel, Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist book, Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist story, Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist full, Tenmaou: Strongest Martial Artist Latest Chapter