“~ That’s reassuring. So are you going to go along with your plan for Sora? You’re surprisingly taking responsibility over something. ~”
“Hey, even I know the importance for this matter,” said Kai, stopping to allow some of the hovering cars to go past him. “He’s a danger to himself as well as those around him. We don’t have much of a choice with regards to him.”
“~ I’ll leave it to you then. Come back to headquarters soon and give a written report on the case. ~”
Kai frowned, “Hey, I’ve got some stuff I’ve got to take care of. I’ll handle all those trivial things later.”
“~ So it’s a date, is it? ~”
Kai cut the call.
He let out another deep sigh as he waited for the traffic robot to stop the traffic for him to cross the road. He was used to getting into trouble, but this was of a different kind. With having to take care of Sora now, his work was going to double. But he shook his head as he went on, hoping that the date reduced his stress a little.
Two uneventful days later, Kai was sleeping soundly in his hotel room in Salt Lake City. The incessant ringing of his phone woke him up. He groaned as he got up and answered saying, “What’s up, Doc? You better have a good reason for disturbing my dream.”
“Knowing you, it was nothing important. Anyway, Sora asked me to call you. He wants to talk to you about something.”
Kai sat up straight and said, “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
Kai rushed to the hospital. On reaching there he met up with the doctor. He asked, “Is he alright now?”
“Yes,” Dr. Gotry said. “He seems to have recovered quite well. He was pretty calm yesterday and talked normally. He didn’t throw any fuss at all. The first thing he said after he got up today was that he wanted to talk to you.”
They walked into the room. Sora was sitting on his bed and looking outside the window. At the sight of Kai, he smiled and said, “Hey, nice to see you again.” He turned to the doctor and said, “Could you leave us alone for a while?”
“S…Sure,” said the doctor and left the room.
Kai examined Sora as he sat on the chair next to the bed. He asked, “How do you feel?”
“Pretty good actually. After composing myself, I was thinking about what I should do, now that I’ve no place to go to. I’ve pretty much made up my mind as well.” He looked at Kai sincerely. “Can you, by any chance, train me?”
Kai looked perplexed. Then he suddenly burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny about that? I’m serious here.”
Kai grinned and said, “I was actually thinking about the best way to ask you to let me train you. And coincidentally you were thinking about the same thing.”
“Why?”
Kai said, “Having two great powers inside one person is no joke. Controlling even one Z-grade is hard. Two of them are unimaginable. But if you’re not trained properly, you might lose control again and harm others as well. That’s my reason. But what’s yours?”
Sora gave a cold smile. “Revenge, it’s as simple as that, Kai. I need to avenge the death of Riku and everyone else in my village. And if I let him walk away, who knows how many others would suffer because of that madman’s goal? But I can’t do this alone. The Dark Alliance is the biggest underworld organization out there. Doing it alone would be suicide. So I was planning to join your guild, Lucifer’s Fall, if that’s okay.”
Kai looked at him strangely and said, “Are you psychic or something? How the hell do you think of the same things as me?”
Sora laughed but then said with a serious face, “I’m ready to start training right now.”
Kai said, “Hold it. The doctor should give an okay sign for you to leave. If I take you out of here now, I might receive an invitation to his autopsy room.”
Sora was discharged from the hospital after three days. By that time, Kai bought various things for him, including a bunch of clothes, shoes, etc. Sora pulled out one of the T-shirts and examined them. “What’s with this crappy rag?”
Kai glanced back and said, “After a few days of my training, your clothes are going to tear up. So I don’t want to waste my money buying good clothes.”
Sora scowled and said, “The doctor was right when he told me that you were a jerk.”
“Oh yeah? What else did he say about me?”
Sora said, “He told me that you’re lazy, dumb, a little arrogant and a womanizer.”
“And you believe him?” asked Kai as he was casually looking at some girls walking down on the other side of the road.
“I guess I’ll take his word,” said Sora smirking.
They walked out of Salt Lake City and proceeded into a forest, known as Denso Forest, on the outskirts. They walked for a few hours and stopped in a clearing next to a river. Sora fell to the ground and said, “How much longer till we start training? We’ve walked for hours.”
“This is training,” replied Kai. “You might not have realized but what you’re wearing is weighed clothing, even your underwear and shoes.”
“Seriously?” asked Sora astonished. “No wonder it was hard for me to walk. But why do I need to train my body? Shouldn’t I be learning how to control my contracts?”
Kai shook his head. “It’s not enough if you just control those contracts. You should be strong enough to use them as well. It’s true that contractors grow accordingly to adapt to their contract. They will be strong naturally. But in your case, you don’t have the physical attributes to handle even one Z-grade contract, much less two. The only reason you’re not overcome by your contracts is due to your monstrous ki. But if we relied on that alone, you would exhaust yourself to the point of death. We have to make your body physically capable of handling the contracts. So you’ll train your body first.”
Sora was a bit troubled. He had not realized the true powers of a Z-grade contract. He found it hard to believe that he was still alive after two blood contracts. He gulped and said, “So when do I finally start using my contracts?”
Kai said, “When I feel you’re ready. We’ll spend the nights camping here till you finish your physical training. You must wear your special clothes at all times. Try to get used to the clothes. After you feel that there’s no difference from before, I’ll change the clothes with heavier ones.
Sora then asked, “Increase? So this isn’t the heaviest one you have?”
“Heaviest?” Kai asked, laughing. “This is the lightest set I have! Its total weight is only five kilograms. If you find this heavy, things look tough for you, kid.”
“Okay, enough talk. Start doing fifty pushups. After you finish that, get into the river and do fifty squats. Don’t take a break till you finish a hundred. If you stop in the middle, repeat it from the beginning. Wake me up when you’re done.” He then set up a tent and went in.
Sora murmured, “Yay me!” But he proceeded with the work given to him without further complaints.
After about fifteen minutes, Sora came out from the river, drenched and groaning. He limped towards the tent and woke Kai up. Kai yawned and said, “How do you feel?”
“Stiff,” said Sora weakly.
“Good, now take a breather for five minutes. Then, take this.” He handed Sora a dagger. “Hunt for our dinner. There are a few animal species here. F-grade ones, which are not considered contracts. I hear the wild boars here have an exquisite flavor.”
Sora said panting, “You want me to kill six wild boars on my own? Those might only be F grade, but there’s no way I could face them!”
“Don’t worry,” said Kai casually, “I’ll help if you have any trouble. But you don’t have to take them head on. You’ll have the element of surprise.”
“But I’m a vegetarian! Why would I want to kill wild boars?”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m hungry. So get them for me. You can pick up some fruits and nuts from the trees.”
Sora didn’t like it but went ahead.
Two months had passed since the training began.
Sora was now running back from Salt Lake City towards the river clearing. He had gone over to buy some provisions for their breakfast and lunch, as they had agreed to buy their food from the stores after Kai had lost his taste for the meat there. Sora was progressing at a remarkable pace. He had increased his total clothes weight, or as Kai called it, TCW, to thirty kilograms. A change in his physique was also visible.
He waded through the forest at great speed as he arrived at the clearing. He decided to get his breath back and then have his breakfast. Kai wasn’t there, as he had to leave on another mission. But Sora was used to his absence now and could train on his own as well.
The level of the beasts ranged from E-grade to B-grade. The animals, with no ki in them were considered F-grades. Sora could now defeat an E-grade with his bare hand. He had quickly grasped the ability to use his ki in punches and kicks, resulting in a force that could shatter a rock. Under Kai’s guidance, Sora was able to improve the control over his ki greatly.
Kai returned to find a couple D grade black wolves lying unconscious a few feet away. He sighed as he finally acknowledged Sora’s abnormal rate of growth. After seeing more than half the provisions bought for five days empty, Kai also acknowledged his student’s insane appetite.
Finding Sora asleep in the tent, Kai roused him and said, “Come on. I’m taking the training to the next level. Get ready. Pack up everything.”
Sora yawned and said, “Next level? You seem to be in a good mood. I thought you said that I needed more training. Did you have a good date or something?”
Kai said, “Don’t be a jerk. I think you can handle the contracts now. So we’ll go to one of my own secret bases in this forest.”
“You have your own secret base? Here?”
“Who do you think I am? I’m the ice emperor, known for capturing some of the greatest villains in the world. I’ll obviously have a lot of enemies. I need a place to hide.”
“Only from enemies?” Sora asked quietly.
They proceeded down the riverbank till they came to a waterfall.
“Why are we stopping?” Sora asked.
Kai said, “We’ve arrived.”
“The base is here? I can’t see… Where are you going?” he asked as Kai waded down the river towards the waterfall.
“Follow me,” said Kai.
Sora proceeded towards the thundering wall of water. He watched as Kai forced himself through. Sora hesitated then held his breath, closed his eyes and followed.
The water struck him hard for a second, but he pulled himself through and stumbled forward. He opened his eyes and gaped.
A huge mansion shaped to fit into the mountain, down which the waterfall fell from, stood in front of him. The sides of the mansion were a part of the walls of the mountain, which perfectly camouflaged it from the outside. He stepped through the majestic doors of the manor. The lobby was well furnished with a television, comfortable sofas, a mini fridge and more. Kai was seated on one of the sofas, feeling right at home. He said, “This place is quite comfortable. The money spent for this place is from the rewards I received from the royal government. It has everything. I can even take care of work from here. I have a computer here that I can use to get into the guild’s database and use the information for my missions. Pretty cool, right?”
“You’re pretty spoilt, aren’t you…” replied Sora.
Kai ignored the comment and said, “You can have the room on the left. The kitchen is down the hallway. After you settle in, take the elevator and meet me on the top floor.”
After a few minutes, Sora was inside the elevator. The doors opened to a big hall endorned with some strange white material on the floor, walls and ceiling. On touching it, Sora felt it recoil and suddenly spring back into its original shape.
“That material is called kimatic rubber,” Kai walked in from the elevator. “Synthetically prepared rubber that can’t be damaged with physical attacks. Only certain chemical reactions can tear it apart. So this provides a perfect training room.”
“Now this is cool,” said Sora, “So what kind of training are we going to do here?”
“I’ll teach you on how to summon and use your contracts now.”
Sora’s lax expression hardened. Kai went on, “You can use your ki pretty well now. So things should be easier. Now as a first step, show me the contract mark of the twin blades of the wind.” Sora showed him the back of his right hand, bearing the symbol of two swords.
“Now, focus your ki on that symbol. Increase the amount of ki gradually. Don’t rush it. After you do it once, you’ll find it easier later.”
Sora stretched out his hand, took a deep breath and then started channelling his ki towards his right fist. He gradually increased the amount of ki. Warmth engulfed his hands and they started glowing.
“Don’t stop. Keep providing ki,” Kai said.
He didn’t lose focus and went on. The glowing became brighter as he gave more ki. And then there was a sudden blinding light.
Sora opened his eyes and saw that he was holding two swords. The silver blades with the symbol of a cloud engraved on it gleamed. The golden hilts in the shape of a dragon’s face gave out an aura of superiority. The red jewels in the dragon’s eyes and the end of the azure hilt reflected Sora’s awed face. He gripped it tightly as the handle grew warm, as if the treasure of Vento was acknowledging its new master. The twin blades of the wind in all its glory were now in the possession of an eight-year-old boy.
Kai stood with his hands folded and a satisfactory smile on his face. He said, “Perfect. You now hold one of the strongest contracts in the world of Gara.”
Sora was examining the swords. He then said, “This is amazing. I can feel its power flowing into me. But, isn’t the name too long?”
“What?”
“Well, it will be a little annoying calling it twin blades of the wind again and again. So let’s call it something short and cool. Since it was one of the legendary dragon’s weapons, something associated with it, why not call it Wind Fangs?”
“Whatever. That’s the least of my worries,” said Kai, annoyed.
“Then Wind Fangs it is,” said Sora approvingly.
Kai went on, “Okay… now that you can summon it, dispel it by withdrawing the ki from the contract.”
Sora obeyed and dispelled the Wind Fangs. He suddenly felt exhausted.
“That’s expected,” said Kai. “Being a Z-grade, the Wind Fangs consume a large amount of ki. After you get back your breath, we’ll go on to the next one, the black flames.”
After around five minutes, Sora got back to his feet. Kai said, “Now, repeat the process using the other contract mark. Don’t rush it. Just get the feel of it.”
Sora followed the same process. Once again his left arm started glowing. But it was glowing black. Then unmistakably it took the form of a flame. The room instantly became very hot. But it ended as soon as it began. The flame started flickering. Sora started giving more ki. It continued flickering but the flame became bigger.
“Sora, stop doing that.” Kai knew something was wrong. But Sora went on.
“Stop it now.”
But Sora didn’t want to give up. He gave more ki.
“Sora, DON’T!”
Sora had given a harsh burst of ki. Instantly the flame burst out. But it was so large that it engulfed his whole body. Sora started screaming. He felt his whole body burn. The pain was unbearable. He couldn’t take it anymore. The last thing he remembered was the inconceivable urge to take his own life to make the pain stop. And then he blacked out.
The next thing he knew was he was lying on a very comfortable bed. He opened his eyes, revealing a room that seemed like it was still inside the base. He tried moving, but his body hurt all over.
“Oh, you’re awake!”
Sora jumped. It was a medical robot next to his bed.
“Lie down, I’ll call Master Kai.”
A few minutes later Kai entered the room looking anxious.
“Ho
w do you feel?”
“Other than my body hurting all over, pretty good. How long was I out this time? What happened anyway?”
Kai said, “One day. Seems like you lost control over the black flames. You started burning yourself with the flames. If I hadn’t summoned Glacio and frozen you, you would’ve been burnt to a crisp.”
“Well give my regards to the bloody yeti,” replied Sora. “But I must’ve been burning only for around five seconds. That knocked me out for a day? That’s one hell of a power.”
Kai said quietly, “I don’t think you should use the black flames yet.”
Sora stared at him. “Why?”
“It’s dangerous, that’s why. Controlling that insane flame is next to impossible.”
“But, I should at least try, shouldn’t I?”
Kai replied, “No, Sora. You will not use it at any cost.”
Sora had not seen Kai this worked up before. He quietly muttered,”Okay.”
Kai nodded and said, “Well, once you’ve healed all your burns, we’ll start training you in using a sword. Let’s use a normal one, for starters. Or should I say two, because your contract is a twin blade.”
He bent down and picked up two swords. He handed them to Sora and said, “Use these ones. After you get used to it, we can use the Wind Fangs.”
Sora examined the swords. He kept them down and said, “Cool. So how long do you think it’ll take to master the Wind Fangs to your expectations?”
“I’ll go for around ten years to fully handle a Z-grade,” said Kai.
“Right. So I’ll finish it in around seven years,” said Sora.
Kai smirked and said, “I’d like to see you try. You don’t have the potential to master Z-grade contracts that fast. You’re just a workaholic.”
Sora didn’t reply. He was just mentally preparing himself for what the future held in wait for him.
The next seven years went by in a flash. It was just another morning in one of the South continent’s most prosperous city, Gildartz, home to the guild, Lucifer’s Fall. Cars hovered over the street, mid-air traffic was picking up, and people were heading to work as the March sun blazed over their heads. All seemed peaceful.
Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento Page 3
