One step at a time

As we were getting near the crowd, we found a few seats empty in the back, we sat down and watched the next fight coming out. I sat down shaking my legs while looking at the spectacle, this was just what I was searching for a long time and I was finally capable of seeing it with my own eyes.

I bloody fight where people put all their might in order to achieve something, fame, wealth, or doing it for the pure adrenaline, for the thrill of the fight.

There were a ton of fights, one better than others, but it was time to get into the next. I went down and passed through the crowd to get into the commentator that was leaving. I grabbed his coat and with a big smile I tried to say something, but he interrupted me.

“A kid? What the- SECURITY!”

“W-Wait sir, please, I am an elementer too”

I extended my hands as wind came out of my hands.

“Oh… what do you want, kid? I’m busy”

“I want to know how to get into the championship”

“YOU WANT TO FIGHT?!”

The commentator started to laugh and my smile faded a bit, he took his time, never saw someone laughing for that amount of time.

“Forget it, kid. Go play be a hero or something else”

The commentator left and I looked at the ground, Yuki petted my back and put her hand on my shoulder.

“What a jerk, don’t worry Yuki, we would find another way to get you into the fights, we know how this looks like after all”

“Yeah… thanks Yuki”

“That is going to be complicated”

“Hum?”

Both of us look behind us and look at someone going down the stairs with a wad of cash. Under the dark sky we didn’t notice how he was but we recognized the voice, it was the person that tried to kill us.

Orange curvy long lair until the end of the neck letting his forehead be seen, black circular glasses and a skinny body, he was approaching us with a smile while saving his money in his coat.

“What do you mean?”

“To be into the championship you need more than just the will to do it, it requires a manager, without a manager you are screwed, oh and managers cannot be minors, so you guys are small fries and without anything in your power”

“You come down only to say that to us… you…” —I said.

“My name is Yoru, Yoru Akagetsu”

“Right… Yoru…”

“So cold…”

“You tried to kill us back then, you don’t deserve our respect, Yoru” —Said Yuki.

“I got it, I got it…”

“So, what do you want?” —Said Yuki.

“I see potential when I see it. I know we didn’t start on the best terms, but how if I become your manager and get you into fights? I am a man of contacts, after all”

“You want to be my manager?” —I said.

“Forget it! You only want us to exploit it, I bet there is something tricky to gain money” —Yuki said.

“Of course, is about getting money but is not the way you think, like I said, I know potential, and I can see myself getting tons of money with you”

Yoru pointed at me with a cigar as he lit it up and started smoking.

“Let’s get out of here, Ren…”

Yoru smiled and went we went to the exit a man stopped us and they put around our necks a necklace, it was cute, it was the same necklaced that Yoru had. It had three stones with words written on them, one black, one white and the other red with the letters in black.

“The necklace us your pass to get into the elementers fights, you can only have one, if you lose it, we are not sparing any for you, the police know about this so if you get caught you go to prison”

“Wait, so this is not a key…”

“You are right, is a mark, for both of us, for us to get you enter and for the police to knows you”

“How can the police not enter if they had this?”

“Easy, lend me your hands”

We extended our hands and the guard was fast pinching our fingers to get a drop of blood, then we put that in a notebook that he had and the necklaces started to glow for a few seconds.

“It only works on the user that made the pact, this is how we now if you guys lost yours too, if I try to put another necklace it would be no activate”

“No wonder the police haven’t found this place…”

“That is right, and we want to keep it that way, so for both of our safety, specially yours, be careful”

“We understood”

We both agreed and left the scene, we sighed when we came out, we felt the cold breeze hitting us.

“Damn it's cold…”

“Yeah… let’s try to get something out of the convenience store and go to your home, Ren…”

“Yeah…”

It took us some time to reach my home. We got there at 3:00AM and when we arrived, I turned on the lamp and we started to eat some onigiris and hot green tea.

“A manager…”

“That is the most difficult part now, Ren… if only I was older…”

“Don’t put this on your shoulders, Yuki, how could we know?... I don’t trust any adult thought…”

“Yeah… I trust my parents but I don’t want them going through this… this is beyond our power…”

“What if?...”

“What?... Oh no! Ren, are you of your goddamn mind? He tried to kill us!”

“But what if it is the only way?!”

“No way, man! He probably will leave us when the situation gets worse, adults like him are the worst, man!”

“You think I don’t know! But then what?! How do you plan to go? OH, MISTER CAN YOU BE MY TRAINER? I WANT TO BECOME A ELEMENTER CHAMPION!”

“… you know, I thought you were blind by your ambition but it seems you know how ridiculous this is”

“Dreams are not supposed to be logic, Yuki, the ones that are logic is because they’re getting close to it”

“Still… let’s think about this, maybe if we let it cold off, we might think into something else”

“Yeah… Let’s go to sleep, school will start soon… it would be a difficult day”

“You said it”

After we cleaned up the table we went to sleep, we only slept a few hours, we prepared our breakfast with rice, a few vegetables, fish and miso soup, making our bentos with whiners, eggs, a few cherry tomatoes and rice. Then we left for school while yawning.

“I don’t really want to come to class…”

“You tell me… I heard adults sleep less than this”

“How are they capable of doing that? I mean, we have put an all-nighter before, but doing that and going to work? Must suck…”

“Yeah… my parents got angry one time I was being too noisy”

“Ah, I get you, but this is just how it is…”

I took my phone out of my pocket and started to see the news

“Searching something about it?”

“Yeah… it seems a few more of elementers were captured last night in the street we were…”

“We got lucky we didn’t find anyone; my legs are still killing me by the way…”

“And today is PE… good luck”

“Bastard, don’t tell me good luck as if you weren’t going to suffer”

“Because I will not”

“Try not to stand too much either… we weren’t exactly aces in our class”

“I know, I know… still… showing off would be cool”

“Ren…”

Yuki looked at me with an annoying face and I smile nervously

“I’m just joking! Besides, if I do it, I will not use my power…”

“Still…”

“I get it, I get it, stop looking at me like that…”

Yuki didn’t believe me but I knew I had to behave. We arrived at school at the usual time and time went as slow as possible.

In class I wasn’t able to concentrate, I was doing random drawings at the end of my notebook and thinking about the offer of that guy, and when lunch came, I was looking at the sky of the rooftop while Yuki was eating.

“Yuki”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to talk with Yoru”

“…”

“The more I think about it the more I realize that it would be troublesome to find another. We are there, I just have to grab what I can…”

“Dammit Ren… remember what I said before? If the boat was sulking, I was sulking along you”

“I know… and I don’t want you to get hurt, I promise I will look for dangers for you, even if I get hurt”

“I don’t want that either… but I trust you, Ren”

“Tonight… we need to find Yoru and trust...”