An endless battlefield.
The forces of light and dark clashed, again and again and again. Since the birth of life in the universe, these two sides could never live in peace. The war raged on, neverending.
As the strongest of the clan of darkness, I led my people in a bloody conflict against the armies of the light, but it was futile. They were too many, too powerful… even my immense strength wasn’t enough to close the gaps between our two forces.
In the end, the darkness fell to the light.
And I woke up.
My body ached all over, but that was normal. Just the other day I got into no less than five fights against rival schools and their bosses. I stretched my arms above my head, trying to loosen up the creaking in my joints.
With a yawn, I crawled out of bed and got ready for school. The dream from before was strange, but it was just that, a dream. I didn’t really care about analyzing it or anything.
Supernatural fantasies like that didn’t interest me, the stories of light novels or anime remained popular among my peers, but they always lacked something for me. They weren’t real enough, not in the sense that I wanted to watch a drama set in this world.
Rather, I much preferred what was directly in front of me. Why would I waste my time watching someone pretend to fight, when I could step outside and test my fists in the real world. There were no shortage of challengers all around me, I seemed to attract them like moths to a light.
One eventless breakfast with my mom later and I was off to school. I passed by several classmates, including the girl considered the number one school beauty, Yuuki Raza. Somewhat shorter than the guys, with a refined short bob of raven black hair. Her modest but not insignificant bust probably didn’t hurt her popularity either.
Even I had to admit she was the definition of a stunning Japanese beauty. Though I find her given name rather strange, it certainly wasn’t a normal Japanese one.
“Boss… Boss!” a younger student ran up to me, panting heavily. He gasped for breath, and then continued. “It’s Seiko high, they’re making a move on our turf! Toji And Kou tried to take them out, but they brought a monster with ‘em… we can’t do it alone.”
Somehow, I had been appointed the leader of Kamijou highschool’s delinquent group, though I don’t remember ever applying for the position. I guess after beating them all single handedly, they realized they needed my help if they wanted to be taken seriously.
“Haah…” I let out a deep sigh. “Alright, let’s go.”
As we neared the front gates of the school, a crowd had already formed to watch the fight. There was a mix of our school’s colors and another engaged in a brawl, but that stopped as soon as I arrived. The leader of their group, a massive gorilla of a man who I couldn’t believe was still in school, walked forward, noticing we had appeared.
“Oi oi, this is the legendary Hatsu Takeru? The King of Kamijou? One-Tap Takeru?” The enemy boss laughed, and his followers joined in after him. Like many before him, my appearance was deceiving. “Why don’t you go get a job modeling or something, before I ruin any chances of that happening when I wreck yer’ face! What a fuckin joke, we came down here for nothin’!”
From my left jacket pocket, I brought out two black fingerless gloves, the kind designed for hand-to-hand training. I slipped them on wordlessly, as the man continued to laugh.
“Well, since you’ve heard of me already, you know the stories of my prowess.” I smirked a bit, looking up at the huge man’s stupid face. “But I don’t even know where Seiko high is, so I have no clue who the fuck you are!”
“Bastard, You’ll regret that smug look in yer’ eyes!” he shouted, throwing a sloppy and ameteur punch at me. He was the type to rely on brute force, rather than proper technique, obviously. “Ora!”
My right hand outstretched, his punch landed against my palm, harmlessly. There was certainly power behind his wild swing, but I had intercepted worse… and not always with my hands. A crowd of onlookers, mostly girls, squealed at the sight of my effortless move.
I really wish I didn’t have this unwanted club of fangirls, when had they even started gathering around me? I couldn’t remember, it felt like forever since they started. They were annoyed, I just wanted to be left alone most of the time, but they were always following me around in school.
With his hand in my grasp, I leveraged that to make him lose balance. As the massive man fell right into me, I threw a left straight with all of my power behind it, and I crushed his nose before he even knew what was happening.
“As strong as ever, aren’t ya Takeru?” The underclassman who had brought me here spoke, handing me a handkerchief to wipe off the blood from my hand. “I don’t see why they keep trying, your one shot punch is legendary already!”
“Hmph, trash like that isn’t even worth fighting…” I couldn’t help but feel dejected, it had ended so quickly. It’s not like I liked fighting, but every time a fight ended in one or two swings, it was so… unsatisfying? “So boring… can’t anyone give me a real challenge?”
It didn’t take long after that for the school staff to show up and break up the fighting, and I got dragged off to the office to be scolded for it. For some reason, they never did anything about it, and I was never even threatened with a suspension or anything.
After a twenty minute lecture, I was finally released from that hell and allowed to head to class. Since they never bothered to punish me for this, the whole exercise was a waste of time. I guess they had to make a show of it, so they seemed like they were trying, but I don’t know why they didn’t do more.
“Expelled yet?” One of my classmates thought he was funny, since he laughed at himself, but I just ignored him and sat down at my desk. Two seats behind me was Yuuki Raza, between us was… you know, I can never remember his name, he just doesn’t doesn’t really stand out.
“Wake me up when the class ends…” I rested my head on my desk and tried not to pay attention to the boring history teacher. But I couldn’t sleep, that dream from this morning replayed in my thoughts as I closed my eyes.
After school let out I slipped away from the gang of idiots who wanted me to be their leader, as well as my unwanted harem of girls who thought I was cool. My thoughts were clouded and my head hurt, maybe the fatigue from so many street fights was finally getting to me.
As I took a shortcut through the city park to head back home, my body continued to heat up, every step I took made me feel worse. And within my foggy consciousness and feverish body, a sense of dread also crept in. Like a sense of danger all around me, a palpable bloodlist hung in the air.
Like I was being targeted, hunted.
And whatever it was after me, it wasn’t human.
Wait, what were my confused thoughts up to? Not human? That’s just that stupid dream from this morning, nothing more. This wasn’t some kind of supernatural anime, there was no such thing as monsters.
But still, I slipped into an alleyway to avoid whoever was following me, as it was likely other gangs would target me if I looked out of it, even if they weren’t monsters. In this state I don’t know if I can even fight back.
Unfortunately, the alley I picked was a dead end, and I realized my mistake too late. When I turned around, the only exit was blocked. Standing there was a humanoid silhouette, hidden in the shadow of the buildings surrounding us.
His body heaved up and down, his breathing looking more rough than my own. He took an unsteady step, his body unnaturally lurching forward. He slowly stepped into the light, and what I saw was…
Not human.
He wore the school uniform of my high school, but tearing through it were grotesque, fleshy spikes. His arms had become something inhuman, knife-like claws nearly dragged against the ground with how long they were. His eyes glowed with a horrifying crimson color, and the rest of his face had become an indescribable horror.
This was not a man, not anymore.
“..!”
The creature swiped at me with their blade-like claws, missing me by a hair. I stepped back, but lost my footing and fell to the ground. My legs weren’t responding, for the first time in a fight I felt… scared?
“Is tHiS EnOuGh Of A cHaLLeNgE fOr YoU?!” The creature’s voice was distorted and horrifying, piercing my soul to the core.
“Somebody… help me!” I screamed out, my voice much more shrill than my usual deep tone. It was like I was watching someone else entirely act out through my own eyes, this person was scared and weak, not at all like I acted.
“DiE... TaKeRu!!”
Claws as sharp as steel and as hard as diamond sliced through the air at my immobile body. I screamed for my legs to move, for my body to roll out of the way, but I couldn’t move a finger.
My vision went white, a bright light blotting out everything I could see. Blood splashed across the red bricks of old office buildings and cold, dirty concrete, the hot red liquid stuck to my skin and hair, and all I could smell was iron.
“EhHhH..?”
In a flash of golden light, the beast was vanquished, falling dead to the side of me. A gilded sword cut out the demonic creature's heart, and the blood that coated my uniform and hair was the monster’s, not my own.
“H-Huh?” I looked up, stunned, as my vision slowly returned to me.
A woman with brilliantly white hair, as pure as untouched snowfall in scandinavia. White robes adorned with golden armor and chains, and two ornamental looking metallic wings on her back. The sword that slew the demon still glistened with cursed blood, but even that couldn’t stain the exquisite beauty of the medieval european styled blade.
They looked just like a christian angel. I wasn’t very religious, but even if I was, christianity isn’t that prevalent here in Japan… but yet, that’s all I saw when I looked at her. She was stunningly beautiful, inhumanly so, and her figure radiated a warmth that could only be described as being otherworldly.
I couldn’t tell if I was dreaming or not, but I slowly stood up. I wiped some of the blood off my face with the back of my right hand, and then instinctively held out my dominant left towards the woman.
“Thanks a lot, you really saved my ass…” I gave her a fragile smile, my body still feeling weak from the events that had transpired.
The angel did not accept my handshake. Rather, she stepped back. Her sword lashed out with lightning speed towards me. Confused and shocked, I still somehow managed to avoid a deadly hit. Her sword bit into my skin, but only on the surface level, slicing through my school shirt as well as the majority of the bandages around my chest.
It was my natural reflexes that allowed me to avoid her, I suppose. Years of fighting made me attuned to even the smallest hostile movements, and I had already started to dodge before she had attacked me.
“Oi oi oi!” I shouted, hoping she would cease her assault with a deadly weapon. “Ya just saved me, didn’t you?! What the fuck are you doing?!”
She looked at me, her sword pointed at my throat. She showed no outward hostility, but I couldn’t be more terrified.
“The Shards of Ahriman must be cleansed. If you resist, it will only be more painful for you.” She responded emotionlessly, drawing back her sword.
“N-Not a chance, you bitch.” I put on a false sense of bravado, raising my fists as if to fight the angel that stood before me. As if I could defeat her, she had killed that monster so effortlessly. But still, there was no escape unless I was able to beat her here and now.
That’s right, I’m the legendary highschool fighter, Hatsu Takeru! I won’t die here, not today!
My fist soared through the air, closing the gap between us with all my weight behind it. A perfect straight left, one that would make pro boxers jealous. My hand crashed against the hard leather padding on the inner side of her gauntlet, going no further. Her fingers closed around my fist, and she lifted me off the ground with absurd strength.
With just one thin arm, this divine creature slammed me against the brick wall to the left, the stones cracking and beginning to crumble from the impact. With that much strength, I feel like my spine should have shattered, but somehow it didn’t hurt me all that much.
I swiftly cut my right hand up, but the rising hook missed her as she merely had to lean away from the punch. Dammit, she moved so fast my attacks must look like slow motion to her.
She shifted her stance, taking her sword in both hands. I felt numb from the impact against the wall, and with her speed I doubt I could even avoid her at my best condition. Despite my struggling just a moment before, I gave up in that instant, closing my eyes.
“Fine, do it already!” I shouted, holding back the tears I could feel forming in my eyes.
I could feel the sword swing towards my neck, the air displacing at a rapid, unnatural speed. I clenched my fist as tightly as I could, but I never felt the glimmering golden sword cut my flesh. A sound of metal against metal resounded out, and I slowly opened one eye to see what happened.
Contrasting the perfectly honed blade of the angel, whatever stopped her attack was rusted and worn, perhaps even scorched by flame. Instead of a sword, this blade was the tip of a lengthy spear. The unknown, filthy spear knocked the sword away from me, and a figure stepped between us.
With two black horns growing from the side of their fiery red hair, a figure dressed in black steel stepped between me and the angel. A thick tail swept back and forth behind them, like a lizard’s, but without any scales. If my attacker could be nothing but an angel, then there was only one word that described the newest combatant.
Demon.
“Are you injured, my liege?” The demon spoke, her voice giving away that they were, in fact, also female. She looked over her shoulder towards me with a piercing gaze, her eyes glowly a deep purple in color. The whites of her eyes were as black as her armor, making the glow of her irises stand out even more against her face, A face that for some reason I recognized...
“Y-Yuuki Raza?” I asked her, somehow feeling it was the correct answer before she even responded, and she nodded an affirmation. “W… What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain once we’ve escaped, but I doubt this valkyrie will make things easy for us.” She responded, gripping her spear more tightly as it clashed against the angel’s blade again, sparks showering over the two inhuman fighters.
As the two clashed, the difference in power became clearer with each exchange. My classmate Yuuki Raza, who appeared as some sort of demonic being, possessed a fiery rage to her combat style. However, it wasn’t enough. The angel, or rather, the Valkyrie, was much faster, stronger, and showed no sign of tiring. Despite the passion she put into her defense of me, she was losing.
In an instant, the golden blade split open Raza’s side. Her blood ran red, but there was a dark tinge to it that showed she was not human. She fell to one knee, clutching at her wound with her left hand and panting heavily.
“Is this really the limit of my power? To fall to a low level Executioner...” she cried, and it was obvious to all the sense of despair in her words. Even though we weren’t friends, we had barely spoken before… watching her suffer like this pained me more than anything I’ve ever witnessed before.
This wasn’t right, An angel was about to defeat a demon, but it was wrong. It felt unjust, despite everything I know saying the opposite should be true. Whether Shinto or Christian, slaying a dark spirit is meant to be the side of justice, and yet it made my blood burn with anger to think about.
That damned dream won’t go away.
Before I could think my actions through, my legs were running. My hand curled into a fist as I dashed forward towards the two impossibly strong otherworldly beings, entities I had no chance of defeating on my own, but I couldn’t stop myself. The Valkyrie lunged forward, her holy blade rapidly moving to skewer the immoble demon before her, and in that moment I struck.
Her sword sank into my body, cleanly passing through without hitting anything too vital, I think… Maybe it was just adrenaline, but I didn’t feel any pain. I grabbed the sword with my right hand, preventing her from dislodging it from me as my left fist launched out.
I connected with her unarmored face, my fist carrying through and sending her flying against the far wall of the alley. She hit the brick and bounced off, crashing hard against a dumpster before clattering to the ground.
Before they could get back up, I took hold of the blade’s handle, and pulled hard, the sharp sword sliding easily out of my body. Blood stained my body and the ground below me, but I couldn’t feel a thing. I dropped the bloodstained blade to the ground and took Raza’s hand.
I dragged the injured girl behind me as I ran, though I was probably more injured at this point. Somehow, I ignored the pain and escaped the scene with her. Was the angel not giving chase? I’m sure she would, there’s no way I hit her hard enough to knock her out.
The city park came into view, but by then I could feel my body shutting down. My blood loss was too great, and I fell to the ground. The soft grass was a lot more pleasant than the cold alleyway, but I still didn't want this place to be my grave.
“My liege! What have you done! You should have left me behind and saved yourself! This wound… this is my fault for being so weak…” The schoolgirl Yuuki Raza returned, her body reverting to normal. The devilish features vanished and all I could see was a sobbing young girl.
“Shut up, who the hell would I be if I left you behind to die?” I rolled over onto my back and put on a brave face. “I’m the Boss of Kamijou high, I’m not gonna let that bitch kill off the cutest girl in the school.”
I tried to laugh, but it hurt. Must have shattered some ribs when I got slammed into the wall before, at the very least. I looked at my hand, the blood from my wound covering it almost completely.
“W-We have to stop the bleeding!” Raza suddenly exclaimed, her face horrified at the sight of my stab wound. “You haven’t properly awakened, your body won’t heal like mine!”
She began to remove my clothing, and even if I wanted to resist, my body had stopped moving on it’s own.
“Oi… don’t strip me! Not in public!” I pleaded with her to stop, but she was too determined.
She removed my school jacket, then in one motion tore off my ruined and bloodied shirt. The bandages around my chest had been severed before, so without the rest of my clothes to hold them together they fell off. Raza froze, staring at my body in more shock than when she saw the blood before. She pressed her finger against my left breast and watched it sink into the soft flesh, then released her finger and stared at me as it bounced back.
“Takeru… kun?” she cocked her head to the side, confused. She looked as though she had just seen a horrible truth she wished to unsee, or a child who learned that the characters from a saturday morning hero show weren’t real.
My face turned red as a beet, and I desperately tried to hide my body from her, but even if my arms were responding to me it was too late. The damage was done, she had seen me.
“Takeru-kun is… Takeru-chan?!” she shouted, looking completely mortified at this revelation.
“D-Don’t call me Takeru-chan!” I shouted back, folding my arms over my chest.
