Chapter 0:
Menards Clash
The young boy breathed deeply and looked up, his eyes burning with the red hot fiery flames of passion. In front of him was the renowned Menards Academy, the top combat high school in all of Japan. Here he would take his first steps to becoming the strongest man in all of Japan, a dream of his that this school would make into a reality. "This is it!" He firmly grabbed onto the side strap of his backpack with one hand and the other formed into a fist while he observed the school.
It was massive, about the size of a building back in his home city of Tokyo. The courtyard surrounding it had a grassy field and cherry blossom trees that were in full bloom to mark the beginning of a new school year. The building itself was built out of concrete that had a red color and took the shape of a "M." Jonah then remembered that he was actually about to be late, so he quickly hurried to the front entrance, while making sure he wasn't actually running to avoid any weird stares.
Judging from the relatively large number of other students in line, it seemed like he made it on time which brought Jonah a sigh of relief. As it was his turn to sign up, he unconsciously shouted from the top of his lungs, accidentally releasing his pent up nervousness, "Excuse me! My name is Jonah and I'd like to enter the placement exam please!!" and promptly bowed. The once noisy room filled with the conversations between students suddenly became dead silent. Jonah quickly started to gain a blurry vision and internally screamed once the realization hit him. Was this... because of... me? The staff member in front of him broke the silence with a lifeless "Jonah from Tokyo, Japan, you are in arena A. Good luck with your exam." and the once dead quiet crowd returned to it's original noisy state. Thank you so much! You are truly a divine savior from the heavens!
Jonah walked down the massive hallways which seemed like a maze, he wasn't sure where to find the arena. "Damn, I guess this school is really as big as it looks from the outside." Just as he started to loose all hope, a man from the other side of the hallway shouted, "Hey depressed looking guy, are you one of those new students that have a bad sense of direction?" That's mean! You could have just asked if I was lost! "Well, Yeah, I'm looking for Arena A." Jonah tried not to show any signs of nervousness as he spoke to avoid sounding like he was desperate. "Oh that place, sure, I can take you there." Jonah observed the man, he had messy grey hair that reached to the bottom of his forehead, accompanied with jeans and a t-shirt with a rock band that he had never heard of. He gave off a "cool guy" sort of aura that surprised Jonah because he thought that nobody like him would be in this kind of place. And so the paradoxical rude but helpful guy and Jonah began walking to the arena.
"So what's your name?" Jonah slightly jumped. "It's Jonah and I'm from Tokyo. What about you?" The guy turned his head to the end of the hallway "So no last name? Strange... The names Yuki Takahashi, but you can just call me Yuki. I hate formalities anyway. I'm from Kyoto and a second year student here." He said all of that while not looking at me? Damn, so cool! After a few minutes of silent walking, they arrived at the arena. "Thank you Takahashi-senpai!" "You're welcome and just call me Yuki, there's no need for anything else besides that." Jonah wasn't sure if he was being rude or humble, but he didn't need to worry about that anyways.
As they walked into the arena, he was shocked, it had what looked like hundreds of occupied seats that surrounded an elevated black floored area in the middle. "What's with the people, isn't this supposed to just be an entrance exam?" Jonah noticed that a lot of them wore school uniforms. "Oh yeah. most of them are just older students scoping out their future competition. Just think of it like a sports team watching their upcoming opponent's drills. Anyways, you're about to be up, right? You should get going" Yuki pointed up at the massive screen that showed the upcoming matches. Jonah looked up and saw his face on the screen. Alright, I'm up next! Yuki with a cool smile on his face, waved and wished Jonah luck as he headed up to the fighting arena...
As Jonah walked onto the platform, he waited for his next matchup. Before the match began, he changed into in the uniform that was given to him, a black jacket with a button that tied the two sides together and a pair of black pants that were a little too big for his figure, but made them actually kind of cool, he thought. He also had a pair of white sneakers that were loosely tied. Jonah looked around the arena in complete awe and got chills from the cold air. "I can't believe it, I'm really here... This marks the first step on my journey to becoming the strongest!" Minutes went by until he started to get irritated. Damn it, what's taking them so long? But then something strange occurred. As Jonah refocused his attention from the crowd to the other side of the fighting grounds, a little girl was standing there.
She had two pony tails on her sides, straight bangs on her forehead and violet colored hair, accompanied by a dress with a pattern of flowers on them and a nervous look on her face. She looked like she was about 5 years old. "U-um, excuse me sir? I can't seem to find my parents. They were with me somewhere a little bit ago but now they're gone. Could you please help me find them?" she started shifting and seemed like she was about to cry. "Oh! Um... Of course..?" This was quite strange, why would she choose him to ask of all people right here and right now? It didn't matter, Jonah's righteous heart made sure he did the right thing in this situation. He grunted in affirmation with a smile on his face to make her less worried. "You can count on your big bro Jonah to help!" The little girl immediately grew a bright smiled that shined like the sun as her were eyes closed and her head faced towards Jonah's. It warmed Jonah's heart and gave him more determination. "I think they might be behind me in the crowd." Jonah went up to the girl and shouted, "Alright, let's go find them!"
The girl's smile somehow grew even more. "I knew I could count on you, Joni-chan!" She lowered her head and her bangs covered her eyes, her innocent smile grew into one that was filled with miasma. She immediately raised her fist and went into a stance, energy forming around from her that created a presence as she condensed her strength, causing wind to generate as she said in a dead calm voice...
"Destruction of 1,000 Demons"
Her fist rammed right directly into Jonah's stomach, so far it reached his spine. He could feel the shockwaves all around his body and he screamed in reaction to the pain they brought. He was flung towards the wall at an insanely fast speed and crashed. The impact on the wall formed a circle around his body.
"You shouldn't let your guard down around little girls, you know"
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