Darkest Days

23, The Truth

I yelled at him, gripping at my escrima firmly.

"Boy, I have no need to fight you people..." He told me indefinitely. As if that would stop me from most likely gouging his eyes out right now. We didn't even know his motives for being an idiot, yet he still did what he did. Then, he just took his kitsune mask off.

Underneath I saw a face. Two emerald eyes that had a faint glow when I saw them. He had wrinkles all over and long, sliver hair resting on either side of his neck. He had a very patchy beard. Though the emotion I saw was not one I expected.

Fear.

"Listen... NextGen, there are more people than just me coming after you" He told me in a hushed down voice.

"What on earth are you tryna say?" I asked in an attempt to scare him further with that but he simply stood. No flinch.

As if he knew what I was thinking he simply told me:

"Throwing each other into a fist frenzy will not take things an inch further!" He exclaimed. "There are fools on this plain of existence that hurt others for no apparent reason" He continued on. Now knowing me, I'm very impatient with some things and this was one of them. I wasn't about to listen to some idiot who just tried to take my power a few months back.

I stepped myself away from him, my two metal rods were shaking with my hands. I was shaking from a slight sense of dread in fact. "Kid, don't tell that idiot you fought just a few hours ago what I'm gonna tell you..." He then whispered over to me. Shock.

A lot of it.

What the fuck is he gonna tell me here, is this a trap?!!

In fact where are the others??!

He went down to match my height and after a long silence of him trying to check if anyone else was gonna watch he told me this:

"That man you fought can probably break this planet if  he wanted to"

I'm done being a shinobi.

My eyes widened in surprise, fear, anger, so many different things I couldn't explain myself. It was like a wave of different things that hit me all together without a specific reason.

"Why are you telling me?" I asked him, trying not to stutter or stammer in my words. I was litterly weak in the legs from how plain scared I was. I could even feel my ears flatten on top of my head like a mountain that crashed down. He just looked at me with a stare that told me he wasn't lying, I don't know why but I suddenly started to trust this man.

"Because if I told anyone else, they'd have to tell the rest of the others, your a shinobi so your not obliged to tell the other samurai about what happened" He whispered back.

"How do you even know all this?" I asked back like some stupid idiot; I can't help to face it though, I was a kid and I was stupid anyway, no matter if I like it or not.

"I used to be a samurai too." He suddenly muttered in an almost a way where I thought he was reminiscing his past. When I saw him look back at me it was all nothing but a faint sadness in his eyes. "I don't think you'd wanna know why he's even doing all this" He told me quietly.

"I do wanna know but how on terra are we gonna stop this bitch?" I asked so eagerly.

"If he is to wage war we will use this" He presented his hand out to me and opened it up. Down on the palm of it I saw what was a stone with a blue glow in the middle, like a shining light.

"This is a portal stone and with it, you are able to travel dimensions" He finally revealed. I was in a complete state of shock, still and yes, it was adding up to my previous shock. Not only that but I was hyper excited with my cheeks lifting themselves up to form a massive grin on my face.

"What?!! Really?!" I exclaimed. So loudly too I almost shouted.

"Quite down child, you'll evoke that bitch" He whispered loudly to me with almost a hiss.

"O-okay" I mumbled quietly in response, trying my very best to conceal my massive excitement. Now the reason why I was excited was because I had always dreamed of something similar being available to us... though technology wasn't at its finest yet to allow that. So I had invented three theories whilst I wasn't on the streets, whilst I was still with my mother. I was only thirteen and although I was so intelligent I still managed to somehow be the same as every other one. Trash-talking, slang, trying to have fun and play video games all day but I still invented three theories.

About the multiverse.

Turns out this thing here proved them all right. I hadn't had a single clue why he showed them to me though, which is why I then struck a sternly confused look.

"Why on earth are you showing this to me?" I then asked right to him.

"It's simple..." He then stated back.

"Akuma is a galactic dictator"

My eyes widened and I froze instantly. A few moments later I had nearly forgotten to take a breath in and my palms weren't as dry as they'd normally be. I was sweating from fear.

"W-wha... I-Isn't that... a-a myth?" I asked in an almost inaudible hushed voice. I could feel the ears on the top of my head just drop down now, hanging down on either side of my head. Like a real cat who'd have the life freaked out of them if they heard this. Crow shook his head before me. Which only made my fear grow.

"I'm afraid not." He whispered, almost too quietly.

"And you know exactly what a galactic dictator is, don't you? And in case you don't little NextGen, it's a leader who will take lead by force, not encouragement like a true leader. A true leader would encourage their people to fight for them. Help them in the most difficult time, listen to what they say. But no! This idiot... has forced his way... upon almost all the galaxy and now planet Terra will have its fate too!" He whispered loudly, almost as if he were trying to yell through the whisper.

"If you do not stop his rule! He will ruin all you've ever known. Now tell this to your friends, I might die in return. Now take this..." He said with some sort of hidden dignity within him. He put the blue shimmering portal stone, its shimmering light hitting my face with a weirdly warm feel.

"Take this, tell them to meet up with a man called Fodor Senko soon. After that, return to me with your higher up Ari Senko, we'll have to train you up quickly in time before Akuma can kill off the dimension by ripping its dimensional stone off" I was getting sick of his voice. I took the stone and clenched on it as I closed my hand into a fist.

"Why?!! Why is he doing all this?!!" I yelled out. "Why does everyone else have to suffer just because he's suffering?!!" I couldn't contain my anger like my mother had told me so many times to. Like Ari said so many times to. I just... couldn't.

"What's even going on?!! I don't get it!!" I shouted back at him.

"You'll understand when the time--" and he was interrupted by the same idiot with the floating masks. Akuma hit his own disciple. The life instantly popped out of Crow and I swore I saw him die.

"Little son of a bitch!" Akuma shouted at the man's dead corpse. That toppled over and made a loud thud on the ground. Then, without any warning I heard footsteps on my side. I turned my head and saw Ari walk in front of me.

"Ready for round two?!" She shouted in sudden excitement, unseathing her katana, it's blade glistened with blood. "Fine... foolish children" Akuma declared back at us.

"Also NextGen, don't forget what I taught you. Fire is like anger, the more powerful it is, the least likely it is to stop it" She said in a calm voice that almost made me shudder. I thought for a moment I had gotten a blush but I shook it off quickly enough to focus my energy on myself.

"Alright then!" I shouted back.