The Final Eight - Great Encounter Battle Arc

After Hiroshi’s second round fight, he stood off to the side once more, keeping to himself and talking to nobody. He was still uncertain about the near future. If he won the Tournament, that could signal the Gods to come down to him. Would he be strong enough? He would never know until he fought the Gods themselves. 

Not to mention, although Kuro-Yami said he wasn't, was this sword master, Tsuyoshi Kage, really the God of Light?

More questions spiraled in his mind. Why was Kuro-Yami so knowledgeable when it came to the Gods? He was talking as if he was on a first name basis with them. But wasn’t he just some kid that was exiled by his village? Surly he didn’t…

“Lie? No, I haven’t, Hiroshi,” Kuro-Yami spoke up from the inner conscious. Hiroshi had forgotten that Kuro-Yami could read his own thoughts. “Think of it like this. I could have killed you back in the worthless village you found me in. Instead, I allowed you to fuse with me. If I was a God, why was I there? And wouldn’t I have killed you?”

“Yeah, your right, Kuro-Yami, sorry,” Hiroshi sighed. “I don’t trust people very often. Humanity can often be deceiving.”

“I understand. However, we are friends, and I wouldn’t do that to you, would I?”

“I suppose you wouldn’t,” Hiroshi replied, the conversation putting him at ease.

Kuro-Yami grew solemn as he got stuck in his own thoughts.

“I’m sorry Hiroshi. I mustn’t tell you yet. I need us to win this Tournament to fully understand what is at stake here. I hope you can forgive me. I just want to take this world as ours, and to finally have someone care about me as much as you do,” he thought to himself, feeling gloomy about his lie.

Eventually, the matches came and went. Hiroshi, Tomokazu and the mysterious Blossoming Flower blitzed through the qualifying rounds, and all three ended up winning their respective brackets very comfortably. All three would end up fighting in the quarter finals, where the crowd would finally get a look into the arena, and the true fights could really commence.

However, the lots had to be drawn a second time.

“Hello, my wonderful final competitors!” Alexander beamed, not taking his eye off Hiroshi, still sweating profusely underneath his collar. “You have done so well to make it this far in our First Annual Non-Competitive Great Encounter Battle Tournament! You preformed very well to win your bracket, and I can very well see some of you winning the whole thing!”

“Remember! The winner gets to complete a year of training with the God of Light himself, Tsuyoshi Kage! Now, you will redraw to make our final bracket! Shinigami, winner of Bracket One! Please step up and draw your new number!” Alexander announced proudly, before whimpering away from Hiroshi.

He stepped up to the stage. It was a very similar stage to the one that Kuro-Yami was kept captive on, minus the rotting wood. On the stage, there was a single table, which had a small, dark, black box on top of it.

 Hiroshi delved his hand in deep. He could feel eight individual pieces of paper, presumably having all the numbers labelled on them. He took one and yanked it out, immediately unfolding the paper and showing Alexander his number. The presenter gave a goofy grin.

“Wouldn’t want to ruin your moment, jackass,” Hiroshi snarled under his breath, stepping down from the stage.

“Shinigami has picked Number Eight from the box!”

“Huh, for the qualifiers we got the first number, and now we got the last number. Wait…why are we drawing numbers this time? We didn’t do that last round?” Kuro-Yami puzzled. Hiroshi smirked before giving his answer.

“That’s what humans are like. When they see something that they think is boring or dull, they won’t try to make it fun or entertaining. They will just leave it to the wayside and forget all about it. However, as soon as something gets fun, only then do they care. Alexander never cared about the riffraff that came in here…he only cares out the last eight.”

“The best fighters.”

“Exactly.”

After that, Blossoming Flower, Tomokazu and the other five contestants pulled out the paper from the box. Eventually, the final bracket was completed. Hiroshi looked at the board to see his opponent.

Number Seven – White Knight, King of Jousting.

“What a silly name. Sounds so full of himself, doesn’t he?” Kuro-Yami smirked, causing Hiroshi to laugh out loud.

“You said it, buddy. You finally find somebody nice, like that Jeremy kid, and a couple of matches later you get a snobby, good for nothing loser, that only competes in the Tournament because they are so egotistical,” Hiroshi said, making sure to stay alone so that nobody could hear him talking.

“That Jeremy fellow was around the same age as you, pal! Why are you talking like you’re his elder?” Kuro-Yami responded with a chuckle. Hiroshi looked towards the arena with a dead serious expression.

“The pain I have endured has aged me mentally. The situations I have been through, suffered through…I never wanted people to go through the torture I went through…and yet they all took me for granted,” he growled through gritted teeth and clenched fists.

"That’s why I’m not going to play hero anymore. That Jeremy kid was a once off. Besides, people will spread word of mouth that I have an evil presence, not that I helped Jeremy. What a sick world.”

Alexander took to the center of the stage and gave his final announcement in the arena.

“Well, we have our final bracket! Look closely!”

Hiroshi peered at the bracket. He noticed something.

If he and Blossoming Flower were to win, they would face each other in the semi-finals. Hiroshi smiled. They were a very interesting opponent…

“Alright! Everyone! Let’s take to the real arena!” Alexander the Presenter bellowed.

“What? Are we not fighting in here?” Tomokazu asked himself, talking to nobody in particular.

Just then, the back wall of the arena began lowering slowly, through some sort of pulley mechanism. The sunlight came in, blinding the contenders. Hiroshi put his hand to his eyebrow level, and began walking with determination, alongside his seven rivals, outside the old arena, and into the new one.