[19 December, 2002]
"Arashi, I am here!" Karn shouted from a distance.
"Huh!" Arashi, with his big, innocent eyes filled with emotion conveying an unending sadness, turned in the direction of the voice.
Upon the view of Karn, his big eyes turned so watery that his vision became completely blurred.
"Sniff..." Arashi tried to stand up, which he failed to do as he was on the verge of breaking down.
"Big... brother..." Arashi said, still confused if he was dreaming or if it was the truth that the boy was literally standing in front of him.
THAK! THAK! THAK!
A four-year-old, completely fine, without-a-scratch Arashi, with his small legs, sprinted towards Karn. With just one thought: that Karn must be there.
GRK! SHKFF!
4-year-old Arashi grabbed the shirt of Karn and buried his face inside Karn's chest.
"Hik... Hik..." Arashi started to cry uncontrollably, holding Karn as tight as he could.
Arashi hugged Karn as hard as he could, making Karn confused about what had happened to him.
[Karn's thoughts]
I thought he would be angry, he wouldn't talk to me, he would avoid me, but my Arashi, he expresses his emotion fully.
But what Karn didn't realise was that they both were watched over by someone—a boy, just 12 years old, with the god Garuda on his hip, was just standing there witnessing the moment like a ghost.
"What happened, Arashi? Did something hurt you?" Karn asked, hugging Arashi even tighter.
"Your absence... Your absence hurts me the most; it makes my heart ache," Young Arashi said, crying harder.
"Oh! Is it just that? Then buckle up, brother, I have got something for you," Karn said, smiling.
"For me? What is it?" Arashi said, pulling his head out of Karn's shirt.
The present Arashi stood there replaying the memory in his mind, smiling while a tear rolled down his cheek.
"It is a worthy opponent. A specimen that is being trained with the TWELFTH LEGENDARY ARCANIST PATH...
...WÚJÍ, and right here he is…
My brother,
Kuroha TOMA," Karn said with utter excitement.
"Do you think I care about that?" Present Arashi said to himself in his mind.
"Do you think that mattered?" Present Arashi said, seeing Karn go away from his younger self.
"Do you think this was more important for me?" Present Arashi said as he watched his younger version run towards Karn.
"Wait... Big brother!" Arashi's younger self shouted, seeing Karn going away.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! None of that mattered, not even in the slightest!" Present Arashi said, shouting.
"None of that mattered to me more than seeing you...
...again." Arashi took a pause.
"Nothing is more important than you, nothing is more beautiful than your smile, no technique is stronger than your words themselves," Arashi said, closing his eyes.
[Present day]
[Before the events of Berlin]
[BUSAN, KOREA]
"But…" Arashi said, questioning himself.
"Why did I suddenly remember this?" Arashi thought, walking towards Spenser.
"Why only him, why did he return, why?!!" Arashi shouted in his mind, his face completely expressionless.
"I think because he smells like him," Arashi thought as his eyes filled with tears.
"Why? Why is it that Lime smells like it just hugged BIG BROTHER KARN?" Arashi said in his mind.
"Did I hit you that hard that you started crying?" Spenser mocked Arashi as he walked towards him.
FWIP!
Before Spenser's nervous system could even register the synapse firing, Arashi was already in front of him, leaving the very photons of light scrambling to catch up to his silhouette.
SQUEEZE-!
Arashi grabbed Spenser in a bear hug, his grip even harder than when Spenser had grabbed his leg before. He wasn't just grabbing Spenser's bones, but he was effectively crushing them.
"Just a few seconds, just let me feel him again," Arashi said, squeezing Spenser even more.
[Inside Spenser's mind]
"What are you doing? Just run as fast as you can!" Lucian cried as loud as he could.
"KILL!!" Toma shouted.
"I can't!" Spenser shouted in his mind.
"If you can't…" Toma's voice became unimaginably calm.
"Then…
…SWITCH!!!" Toma shouted, bursting Spenser's eardrums in real life.
CRACK!
Spenser's neck bone cracked, completely withdrawing the support to make his neck straight or move, making his view limited to the sky as Arashi was still unconsciously breaking every bone of his torso.
"I... I am... I am losing... con…trol," Spenser said to himself, closing his eyes.
KRRK-!
When no one saw it coming, Spenser himself turned his bones inwards, squeezing his body more by himself to make space between both of Arashi's hands and his body.
TIKT-!
Just the inch of space Spenser made by himself gave him enough of an opening to show his elite footwork; by that, he escaped Arashi's range of grabbing and got away from Arashi.
DTHK!!
All this just to appear a few inches away from Arashi, that too in just a second, leaving Arashi hugging the afterimage of him he created from this speed.
"Thank you, I am satisfied now," Arashi said, his face still dark and Garuda still in his hand.
"Ah! Talking to me?" Spenser said in a completely foreign tone while his finger was in his ear.
[Inside Spenser's mind]
"Who is this?" Spenser asked, sitting at the table of four he saw earlier with Toma, Lucian, and a middle-aged man.
"The one who has almost everything I have, with a different name and personality. But clearly, he doesn't have everything I have," TOMA said in a calm voice.
"You feel like a different person. So, I ask you again, who are you?" Arashi asked with a different tone.
"My name? I don't have one, but my people that love me call me UNCLE," Uncle said, lifting Liǎng Yì.
"And as I perceive this situation, it is clearly a fight, so let's just end it fast," Uncle said, pointing the Weapon of Destruction at the Genius of the Dark.
"Don't worry, there is nothing else left for any delays," Arashi said, lifting Garuda.
KLANGGG-!!
Arashi was stunned, as he was just able to block the attack as Uncle collided Liǎng Yì against Garuda.
KSHING! KLANG! KSHING!
It was Arashi who was just blocking every attack of Liǎng Yì from Uncle coming from every direction. Uncle was not leaving even the slightest opening for the offense of Arashi.
[Inside Uncle's mind]
"Uncle? Very lame," Spenser said in an annoyed tone.
"At least it's better than Lime," Lucian said, crying non-stop.
"Uncle," Toma said, ignoring both of them.
"He is dodging all of my attacks without even breaking a sweat," Uncle said, putting his cup on the table.
"He is the peak of raw swordsmanship; we can't win against him in raw swordsmanship. Use the TWELFTH LEGENDARY ARCANIST PATH," Toma ordered.
KNOCK! KNOCK!
The gate at their back got knocked again, but no one even looked in that direction.
"Now!!!" Toma shouted.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, you are not ready for this," Uncle shouted in front of Arashi.
"Fēng Lún — Wind Wheel," Uncle said, making Liǎng Yì two short swords again.
Uncle then swung both of the swords in a circular path, making intersecting cutting arcs that were never colliding or being overridden by each other's movement, with each arc following its own radius and timing.
But before Uncle could even reach the radius of Arashi and attack him...
"Musō: Iron Cyclone," Arashi said calmly.
[Uncle's thoughts]
Too fast! Enemies don't even recognize this attack this fast; it's so fast that discerning a counter is impossible. He must have been testing his luck on this attack, meaning his attack must be useless.
KSHHHRAAASHH-!!
A noise of glass shattering that would have made the whole city deaf marked the cancellation of Uncle's technique in front of his shocked eyes.
"I recognize this technique; it is the 26th technique of the Twelfth Legendary Arcanist Path...
… Wújí," Arashi said calmly.
"It was a spinning slash, in which entering or leaving would cut you up in any way possible—a perfect counter to stop my attack," Uncle mumbled to himself.
"This must be a coincidence," Uncle said, keeping his calm.
Uncle then lifted his swords again, making Liǎng Yì a longsword again:
"Kōng Mén — Open Void," Uncle chanted in confidence.
[Uncle's thoughts]
This attack is a masterpiece. A thrust that will reach its endpoint without the sword ever reaching the person. The purpose for making the attack itself was challenging the assumption that reaching a target always requires crossing the space between them. So this should be the only attack I need to win this fight.
[Arashi's thought]
Should I take the hit or dodge it? I am confused. Just 'cause he let me hug him, I will tank the attack; as my torso is already covered with flux, I will take no damage because of the coating.
CHRAKK-!!
Faster than Arashi's thoughts was the thrust that struck Arashi's torso without him even trying to dodge it, and its outcome was what Arashi hadn't expected...
KHHK—!!!
Arashi's eyes went blank as his torso was perfectly, diagonally slashed, even cutting the coating of flux over it.
"I underestimated the Legendary Arcanist Path, my mistake," Arashi said, stabilizing himself.
"He is damaged, this is the best time," Uncle said to himself, making a move, thinking Arashi wouldn't notice.
"Musō: Lightning Hunt," Arashi said, pointing Garuda towards Uncle.
GRRNNK-!
Uncle's body locked up in the terror of trying to think of what the attack must be or what would be its counter, but he was unable to move or think of anything except survival.
TIK... TIK... TIK...
A few seconds passed in a flash as Uncle saw Arashi stand up and do nothing except stand, trying to recover.
KTH - VRRSHK! VRRSHK! VRRSHK!
As Uncle thought it was a trap, and as he tried to move with the slightest effort his body could do, he saw his soul in front of him laughing at him, as multiple slashes all over his body appeared in a flash.
His pupils retracted with the trauma of seeing so much of his blood. And his eyeballs were completely white as the nerves of his eyes popped up.
"Who is this b*tch? What the hell are his powers? And what in the world is this fighting style, MUSŌ (Peerless)?" Uncle said, almost falling.
"Sorry to interrupt, but this attack locks the last movement of the opponent, and whenever they try to escape that movement, they are slashed directly to death. You survived by your luck," Arashi said, trying to heal the attack.
VTHK-!
With an abrupt movement, Uncle was in front of Arashi's face, his eyeballs still completely white. And the thing that Uncle was levitating in the air, but his Liǎng Yì was in a perfect stance to attack, shocked Arashi.
"Shí Jiè — World Divider," Uncle said, his voice completely devoid of any emotion.
DGRK!
Arashi's body itself, without even Arashi's brain sending signals to his lower body, crouched, sensing the ultimate danger directly to the life of Arashi.
SHHHRIIING!!
Liǎng Yì swung over the head of Arashi, even slashing a few hairs of Arashi in desperation to prove the worth of its title.
DRAAK-DOOOM-!!
The alley they were fighting in was connected to a parallel, very busy footpath which was running parallel to the colossal skyscrapers on its left side, and in between two of the colossal skyscrapers stood Arashi crouching and Uncle in mid-air, fighting.
And by the attack Uncle unleashed, he slashed 17 80-floor skyscrapers in a straight line.
Tokk!
Uncle's one leg's heel just tried to catch on the ground to stabilise his whole body on the ground, but...
KRRSH-THK...
Arashi stood up like a lightning strike from his crouch and took a killing stance with Garuda.
"Musō: Thunder Howl," Arashi shouted, losing his calm for the first time and showing the emotion of anger for the first time.
Arashi swung Garuda in a manner to produce a wide slash, but…
…from that movement, Garuda produced a shockwave even before the blade completed and arrived at its final destination of Uncle's neck.
Not only cutting Uncle from head to toe, but sending him flying out of the alley. Even further, so that he was nowhere to be found.
FWSSH-!
Arashi turned as fast as he could just to see how many people could be saved from the damage of 17 skyscrapers falling.
TSK-!
Arashi's eye muscles tightened upon seeing what he was currently seeing.
All the skyscrapers were indeed cut, but none of them fell, as a grey flux of Uncle was holding them and wasn't allowing them to cross their path of trajectory.
"Fighting at just 13% of my power is a mistake, and I can also tell this wasn't 15% of his power," Arashi said to himself, keeping Garuda back.
Snap! Snap!
Vance snapped his fingers twice, walking towards Arashi, making things what they were just before the movement before. And acting like nothing happened.
"Be careful next time!" Vance said from the end of the alley.
"Just this? Leave it, let's go, it's almost lunchtime," Arashi said, walking towards him.
"Heh!" Vance just smiled.
[Cut]
VRRRT—KLIK.
"When did ice cream start to cost 5,500 won?" Jin fought the ice cream vendor.
"Jin!" A voice came from behind Jin.
Tok! Tok! Tok!
Jin was shocked upon the sight of the person walking towards him, completely forgetting about the ice cream.
"I don't know why, but my body is very exhausted and filled with injuries, don't know how, so—" TOMA stopped.
"So..." Jin said, mimicking Toma.
"Buy medicine, as the Apex Convergence is not...
...VERY FAR," The Barycentre Of The Convergence Completed, But— Isn't Satisfied.
[TO BE CONTINUED]