Elina: "How strong is he and his group? Hmm... They're pretty much the best students up to now. Kuro's the best on average, but he's not as tough as Kenny, not as fast as Levy, not as precise as Gran and not as proficient in magic as Bea. But if they fought against him? I don't think I've observed them ever win against Kuro."

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Andrew: "Who, him? I haven't even met him yet, but Kuro's said to be the best one in the class, or even the school. He also has a good relationship to all of the students in my current class. Try asking Riel, she's his last teacher before disappearing."

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Riel: "Ah, Kuro... He's... A tough case really."

Sazama: "Why is that?"

Riel: "Well... Whenever we spar for lessons or just for fun, it feels as if Kuro's just hiding something. We tie all the time, but I feel that he has this... 'Thing', about our fights. Like he's enjoying it, rather than a lesson."

Sazama: "How can you say that?"

Riel: "At first, it was all just suspicions. His use of barriers in an offensive manner, his use of fire magic as a way to push himself instead of attacking with it, and weird movements. His way of fighting isn't fixed to one. Dancing, as he calls it 'Capoeira', pure magic by using barriers, and even hand to hand combat. I can't really say for certain what his real fighting style was, but with each repetition of his fighting styles, he improves them. He's pretty much the most unique student I've had, having unconventional ideas and all."

Sazama: "You said that it was all just suspicions... How did you become certain of it?"

Riel: "It was in the past... He and his class were on the field trip to another Kingdom, which is something you'll have as well- by the way, did you know that?"

Sazama: "Yes, I was told by Rai about it before the incident with Sir Kirin and all."

Riel: "Okay so, going back, they stayed for a few months, I can't remember how long as I was also busy at the time, maintaining my adventurer rank. However, news of their dungeon excursion came about, telling us of the disasters that happened. It wasn't limited to them however, but theirs was one of the worst one. The worst is at Levy's, but we're talking about Kuro's here. According to word of mouth, Kuro noticed the amount of monsters not decreasing, but increasing and becoming stronger and stronger as time went on. They couldn't fully retreat however, as if they were to leave the dungeon behind, it would trigger a horde. Kuro offered to stay behind, along with all of their potions to supplement himself. As all the guards retreated to get reinforcements, they were forced to be barricaded as a Death Dragon was seen approaching from where Rai was investigating at the time. Also, Rai wasn't with them, but it was a Royal guard who was assigned to watch over them instead."

Sazama: "What happened then?"

Riel: "Well, it was said that Merlin came in as she miraculously felt something was amiss, and had to check on them. She alone managed to repel the Death Dragon, along with the monster horde it came along with, and Rai was able to rescue Kuro, but in a terrible state."

Sazama: "I thought he was the best? How could he lose against a horde of monsters?"

Riel: "You have to consider how long he was forced to stand his ground. Not a single monster leaked behind him, and he was left with just a few potions. You also have to consider that monsters came in in his left, right, front and between them. They were everywhere. Because of him, they only had to worry about the injured personnel from the fight with the Death Dragon."

Sazama: "I... I see..."

As Sazama was about to stand up, he sat down once more as Riel spoke again.

Riel: "... But that was what the news said. The people who spread it were absent of that one important information. Kuro's strong, he might even be stronger than me. But he definitely wouldn't return without any limbs from just a few Blants."

Sazama: "What?"

Riel: "They didn't tell us what was on that dungeon, or what occurred there for Kuro to be so heavily injured... Until I asked one of his friends in his class. Kuro... Fought against 2 Kings all by himself and miraculously survived that."

Sazama: "H-how?! Weren't Kings supposed to be-"

Riel: "Shh, keep it down! This is classified information! I'm telling this to you because I can trust you with it. His friend told me that Kuro fought with 2 Kings, a Blant King of the horde and a Shade King."

Sazama: "What's a Shade?"

Riel: "Shades are shadow-like beings. They're humanoid normally, but they can change their shapes freely, turning into monsters and such. Although they're like that, they can't hurt anyone, especially in dark places since it's well known that they don't possess any mana cores."

Sazama: "Then how'd he get beaten by it?"

Riel: "One thing's for sure, Kuro was defeated by them... But some of my sources told me something weird."

Sazama: "Which is?"

Riel: "They say that Kuro died."

Sazama's expression was filled with astonishment. Kuro was told to be killed, yet why is it that he's still alive? To the normal person, that is just plain crazy, or even a hoax. But if it's Kuro, whose gift is still unidentified... That gives him a very important piece of information.

Riel: "Say... Why are you asking about Kuro?"

Sazama: "Ah- well..."

Fukunuga: "Sazama! There you are!"

Sazama: "Fukunuga-san! Miss, thank you, but I need to go now. Sorry."

Riel: "No no, it's okay."

As they left, Fukunuga whispers.

Fukunuga: "So, what did you 2 talk about?"

Sazama: "... Kuro's gift. I've identified it."

Fukunuga: "What?! What is it then?!"

Sazama: "Revival."

Fukunuga: "Wait, be more specific. What are the details? Conditions?"

Sazama: "That's the most specific answer I can give. She told me that his friend told her that he died, but he was revived for some reason and even fought against 2 Kings."

Fukunuga: "Shit, isn't that unfair?"

Sazama: "I don't know the limits of that power though. Worst case scenario is that he can revive infinitely."

Fukunuga: "Haa... I know, that's the point. If he can revive infinitely though... Wait, why are we even needed here?"

Sazama: "Yeah, that's what I realized too... But if so, then there's 2 possibilities. One, his revives are limited, or two, it's not enough. What if he depends too much on his resurrection ability that he's become too weak?"

Fukunuga: "But the problem is, he's the best student out here, so there's a possibility that either he really is strong, or that people here are weaker than we thought. Problem is, the latter's impossible because of the fact Rai, and the teachers exist. Him being a reincarnator opens the possibility that he's a King as well."

Sazama: "Now that you mention it... Yeah."

As they keep walking through the empty corridor, Sazama interrogates Fukunuga.

Sazama: "Where were you by the way?"

Fukunuga: "Well... After we all decided to gather evidences of Kuro and prepare, I became curious. Remember the person I mentioned to Kirin and he got mad?"

Sazama: "Yeah?"

Fukunuga: "I decided to gather information about that person... Sadly, I couldn't find anything in that specific scene."

Sazama: "Then-"

Fukunuga: "Until I saw something similar. The story of the Silver Kings."

Sazama: "What?"

Fukunuga: "It turns out, what I fought in his illusion was the first Silver King. I knew just now because it was told that all Silver Kings had silver hair.  She was powerful, too powerful. I fought her with all that I had, and failed. The way she fought seemed as if she knew what my fighting style was. She was perfect, brutal too. She didn't kill me immediately, instead, it felt like she was having fun at my expressions. At that moment, I didn't know what I was fighting anymore. Was that really an illusion? Or was it reality? That's when I died. I was revived instantaneously, and saw that everything had reset. That's when I noticed something around me, something was wrong. Someone was missing, at least that's what I felt. That's when I just stood there. Waiting. As if time stopped, even they stopped moving."

Sazama: "They?"

Fukunuga: "Yeah the people around me, or at least, him in the past. Anyways, the more I waited, the more I noticed it. That's when I looked behind me, and saw him. Another guy with Silver hair. When I got out of there, I asked him about it. Well, you know what happened then. That's when I became curious and well, saw the Silver Kings. It turns out, it's said that the second Silver King wasn't a true King, but rather, a self proclaimed King. He pretty much fucked the world up in some way and in the end, died because Kirin, the remaining God, assisted everyone to fight against him."

Sazama: "I see... But, what does that have to do with what we're doing?"

Fukunuga: "No idea except for my curiosity... But there's one thing I got from there. They killed him using Dragon Slayer magic. If Kuro being a Dragonkin is right, then that should be more than enough to stop him from killing us."

Sazama: "Then, let's go!"

After running in the corridors, they pass by Kuro's friends, who were running to the opposite way, intending to go to the training room. They arrive in Sazama's dorm room, where everyone of the heroes were gathered. Each of the heroes' dorm rooms were much bigger than the others, this was done by Rai.

Akemi: "Alright, since these two lovebirds came in late, let's get sharing."

Some of them bring out their notes while the others relax down as they sit down.

Seno: "Then, I'll go first. They said Kuro's proficient at all magic, but it's been observed that he only uses fire magic."

Hirose: "Me next. Kuro's good at fighting, he can use any kinds of weapons. He's said to be able to be equals against the teachers and even fight against an S-rank adventurer, albeit weakened to make it fair."

Kita: "Kuro's boastful. Yeah, that's all I've got."

Nakano: "I've heard from some girls that he often looks at their chests before slapping himself. No idea why he'd make himself obvious though."

Mano: "Kuro always travels with his friends and loves them a lot. We could use that if we can even subdue them."

Chieko: "Kuro's hot-headed. He has a very short fuse and is very violent. Yet there are times when he's very tolerant. When he fights, he also makes a lot of pre-planned moves and wastes no effort into making them all work. Because of this, it's said that he has a lot of experience when it comes to fighting. He also fights in different ways, dancing and calling it 'Capoeira' or something along those lines. That's definitely something from our world."

Sazama: "Wow you took a lot of notes."

Chieko: "Of course, we're dealing with someone who'll kill or incapacitate us if we're not careful after all. We'd want to reduce the amount of casualties, and to do that, we'd need to prepare-"

Fukunuga: "Okay okay! We know, that's why we did this meeting in the first place anyways."

Chieko: "Tch."

Fukunuga: "Alright. I don't have info about Kuro, but we can possibly match against him with it. It's called Dragon Slayer magic. Since he's a Dragonkin, it should be very effective against him."

Sazama: "Then, my info. As Fukunuga said earlier, we all have gifts as otherworlders. I've heard that Kuro does indeed have a gift. It's pure speculation however, but it might just be 'Revival'. We don't know the limits of that, but he's died once."

Kita: "Wait, he's already died once?"

Sazama: "Yeah."

Kita: "How can we be sure?"

Sazama: "My source told me that that was told by their source, which is a close friend of Kuro."

Chieko: "Then that means that the truth is with this 'close friend' of his, right?"

Sazama: "Yeah, but we don't recommend going to them though. Kuro's been said to be the best, who's to say his friends aren't near him in terms of ranking?"

Chieko: "That's why we need someone to establish a connection to them."

Sazama: "I don't think we can do that now..."

Fukunuga: "Why not?"

Sazama: "Well, Mano-san's pretty much antagonized them."

Mano: "Hey! Don't put me at fault here! They're the ones not moving!"

Fukunuga: "And that gives you the right to 'Shout at the friends of the one who's beloved by the great mage, Rai'?"

Mano: "How-"

Fukunuga: "Word spreads as fast as a bunch of gossiping mothers, Mano-chan."

Fukunuga smiles in a boastful manner, enraging Mano even further, pumping out a punch to Fukunuga's face. Suddenly, instead of breaking Fukunuga's face with her Berserk strength, the bones of her hand broke down, snapping multiple times, making her hand down to her forearm look like an accordion.

Mano: "Gah!"

Fukunuga: "Now now, I think you forgot my class... Aegis, was it?"

Sazama: "Quick! Heal her arm!"

As they try to treat her arm, they continue discussing the plan once again.

Fukunuga: "Alright, what we need to focus right now is learning how to use Dragon Slayer magic. That's for majority of us. Some of us however, need to go and get close to Kuro's friends and gain much more information about him. Sadly, the only one who can do that is... Well..."

As Fukunuga's voice slowly decays, everyone looks at Sazama.

Sazama: "Wait, me?!"

Chieko: "Well, yeah. You're the most charismatic out of all of us, so you're the best candidate. Plus, you're bad at lying so they won't suspect you that much."

Sazama was annoyed, but before he could even speak, Fukunuga wraps his strong arms around him.

Fukunuga: "Come on, you already know it yourself. You're the only one here we commonly agree to approach when we're in need of a friend."

Sazama: "He-"

Immediately, Fukunuga whispers to him.

Fukunuga: "Sazama, listen to me for a bit. If it were another person, they'd most likely fail to even get close. On our entrance ceremony, I've seen multiple people look at you with trustful eyes."

Sazama: "Wait how-"

Fukunuga: "That's not important. What's important is the fact that they can approach you better than everyone else here and that you can approach them better than everyone else here. You're important to this mission, and if we fail to get more information, we'd most likely be incapacitated, or worse, killed. The fact that Kuro has a short temper... The worst we can think of is the fact that he'll kill all of us in his rage."

Sazama sighs.

Sazama: "Alright alright! I'll do it..."

Fukunuga: "Alright! Everyone, let's go to Rai. Even if Rai reassures us that Kuro won't do anything, we best be prepared."

As everyone left Sazama's room, Sazama had doubts.

"... Why would he kill us if there's nothing to gain? And... Why are they scared? As they said, Kuro's kind... So why?"

 

 

Chapter 30 -END-