The Next Head

“You won’t get to see another day, you damn monster!”

This was shouted by a boy. But not just any boy. Sure, he might’ve looked like your average Japanese teenager with his spiky black hair and bearing eyes of the same color, but if the phrase “not what he seems” could apply to anyone, it would be him 100%.

The monster, reminiscent of a giant, dark purple ogre roared at the boy. But surprisingly enough (albeit not to himself, of course), he wasn’t fazed. Not in the slightest.

On the contrary, the boy simply grinned as he passed his arm across his forehead, as if he was removing the sweat from it.

“Let’s do this, then.” He said with a confident smile on his visage.

After screaming to motivate himself, he threw his school bad aside and began running towards that huge monster that accompanied him inside the forest they were currently in.

“RAAAH!” The monster roared once again, noticing the boy coming closer to him. As he did, he prepared his left arm to punch him.

He was about to punch, but as soon as the boy noticed, he was about to jump.

However, the boy did so too soon. The monster initiated the motion to punch the boy.

“Ah-” The boy couldn’t lie if he said he was shocked. However, it didn’t matter. That confident smile returned to his face.

“HYAH!” The monster shouted, finally letting out the punch.

But seconds later, he felt as if his arm didn’t move. He wasn’t hallucinating; his arm was stopped dead in its tracks.

The monster looked at his left arm, and it’d been stopped by another punch. The boy had used his right arm to punch his giant arm. In any other occasion, this would’ve been an anomaly. However, the monster closely scanned the boy’s arm, specifically his hand.

Energy. Something that seemed like black energy was covering his hand. He also noticed that that confident smile remained on him.

The boy looked up at the monster. “You’re not going to defeat me, if that’s what you thought.”

His arm still stopping the giant arm in place, he gathered his remaining strength and punched, the giant arm and the monster itself being punched back.

Once he did so, the boy jumped high in the air and was about to punch its head.

And so, he did. The strength of the punch was so strong that the monster was thrown off balance. He didn’t fall, though, as he regained it in a few seconds.

Doing a backflip once he touched the ground, the boy stopped and looked up at it.

“Hehe…” He laughed under his breath. “You can’t defeat me. I’m the heir of the Yukisaki clan, after all.”

The Yukisaki clan. Anyone that was part of the supernatural realm had heard of that famous last name and clan.

Of the two realms that existed, the regular and the supernatural realm, everyone inside the supernatural realm, or rather, anyone that knew about the existence of such abilities either possessed one like so or knew about the Yukisaki. Such a powerful clan couldn’t be ignored; their impact was so powerful that they even impacted the regular realm.

Their main focus was the training of Mages, Knights, and Magic Knights, swordmen and swordswomen that used both magic and sword (an amazing feat), but they also focused on the destruction of monsters or any mission the Japanese government assigned to them. Whether it was stopping a certain crime, or assassinating a famous figure, they wouldn’t hesitate to accomplish their tasks.

And this boy, the boy the monster had the horrible luck of fighting against, was that clan’s next heir.

His name was Sora Yukisaki. It was rare to find someone that didn’t recognize that name. Not only because he was the next heir, but also because he was extremely powerful as a Magic Knight.

“I might as well use my actual power. It’s going to make it more fun, regardless.” Once spoken, in that moment, Sora extended his arm, causing an orb of dark purple energy to form in front of him.

Seconds passing, the orb grew bigger and bigger.

The monster roared, and in that moment, it began its dash towards Sora. However, it wouldn’t last long.

It was safe to assume that the monster’s desire was simple: to kill Sora. But that wasn’t going to happen, at least not easily.

The energy orb got so big that he had to use his other hand to hold his charging arm for support. He saw the monster ran towards him, and once it was in a perfect range…

“You’re dead! Take this!” Sora shouted, causing the giant sphere to fly towards him, sending him back due to recoil.

The monster continued its dash, however…

The orb was getting closer.

Closer, closer, and closer.

And in the end…

The orb collided with the monster.

“ARGHHH!!!!” The monster exclaimed, and with good reason. The orb had formed a giant hole on its chest. The blast was so powerful that the monster’s organs around that area had disappeared as if they’d never existed.

It fell to the ground.

That monster, that giant threat…was decimated in the blink of an eye.

For any normal human being, that sight would’ve been too much to handle.

But for someone such as Sora, it was just a regular day.

“Well, that’s my mission done for the day.” Commenting as he brushed his hand through his hard, he turned around. “I suppose I should begin my way back…”

Putting his hands in his pants’ pockets and bearing a visage resembling disappointment, he began walking that direction, to take another route, so to speak. His plan was to keep walking forward, but the monster had made him so bored out of a sudden that he’d chosen that second option.

I can’t deny it… He began thinking in his head but then began doing so out loud, “These missions get more boring with every day…”

As he walked towards his destination, he admired the forest that currently covered his surroundings. It was hard not to. Even for someone who’d been through that exact same path more times than they could count, the sight of that beautiful light green forest in combination with either the brilliant sun and light blue sky or the majestic moon and dark blue, starry sky, it was always a sight to behold. And Sora himself knew this.

“Even so, this scenery will never be dull.” He smiled as he said so.

After he walked 10 minutes or so, he saw a giant gate in the distance. One with a rectangular, wooden wall that extended a great distance towards the left and right.

However, the gate currently stood at a distance, and in the middle of both, stood that giant gate.

Having seen the familiar gate, Sora walked on the giant path that extended from the gate towards him and even more so to the area behind him. He saw the gate up closed and once he was at reach, pushed it lightly with his right hand.

What laid on its other side was only but a scene that he could’ve replayed in his head perfectly.

“First Form!” He heard a rough, make voice shout.

“HYAH!” A great multitude of voices shouted soon after as a response.

The scene that he experienced in front of him were a crowd of people (around 100 or so), wearing certain special uniforms and following their instructor’s orders.

As soon as he noticed, one of the trainees noticed Sora’s presence. “He’s back! The Young Lord has returned!”

Everyone turned to where he was looking, that obviously being the giant opened gate, Sora standing there.

He waved with the same hand he used to open the gate with an awkward smile: “Yo.”

The trainees all moved from they currently stood, forming a path for the Young Lord to walk through.

With a wry smile, Sora reacted to an act of courtesy he was used to experiencing most times he returned to that monastery; that place he deemed his home.

As he walked through the “man made path”, he gazed at the trainees that made it up. “You really don’t have to do this every time I return.” He scratched his head with his left hand as he told them.

“No no, we must. As the next heir of the Yukisaki, you deserve our utmost respect.” The trainee closest to him answered back.

Smiling awkwardly, he stared at him, stopping in its tracks at the same time. He returned his left hand to his pants’ pocket and continued his way. As he usually did when he returned from school, he took off his shoes in the monastery’s main entrance, and continued his way to his room, school bag hanging off his right shoulder.

As he continued his way through the huge monastery, he walked through the largest room within the entire building and saw someone in the center of it.

He was sitting with his legs crossed on the floor, and his arms resting on his legs, eyes closed.

Of course, Sora knew exactly who this was. The man looked young for someone 40 years of age. His spiky black hair was very reminiscent of Sora. Or rather, Sora’s hair was reminiscent of the man’s.

“Welcome back, Sora.” The man said without moving a muscle, as if he’d known he was there. Well, that wasn’t inaccurate to say, because he did know he was there using a certain magical skill.

“I’m home, Father.” Sora responded to the man.

“We will be having dinner in two hours. Remember that.” Sora’s father told him with a very calm, relaxing voice as he continued to meditate.

“Understood. See you then.”

Leaving that room, Sora walked towards the residential area of the monastery.

Once he reached his next destination…

“Welcome back, big brother!”

That cute, young, too familiar female voice ringed in through his ears.

“Yes, good afternoon, Aya.” With a smile on his face, Sora responded to his little sister.

“Sora, you’re slightly later than usual.”

Another voice, this one belonging to a male.

“Good afternoon to you too, Ken. Yeah, I was caught up with killing a monster. No biggie, though, I’m okay.”

“That’s so cool! Also, just so you remember…”

After responding to his older brother, Ken, alongside Aya, walked up to Sora.

“The day’s approaching! You’ll be the heir in no time!” They both said in perfect synchronization.

Those were Aya and Ken Yukisaki, Sora’s younger siblings. Sora was 16, and they were both 12. They were the second and third children of their father, with Aya being born just 2 minutes before Ken, making her slightly older.

Aya bore long, black hair that reached half of her back, whilst Ken wore his hair very short. They both looked like younger versions of Sora. Many within the family have stated that Ken looks very similar to how Sora did in his younger years.

“I know that. The ceremony’s in two days.”

Albeit he’d probably never admit it, Sora did feel nervous over that day. The day he’d become the family’s next heir due to that faithful day. That certain event that occurred within the family years ago…

Of course, he wasn’t against it or anything, but it felt as if a giant burden would be placed in his shoulders as soon as he gained the status.

Also, there was practically no way out of it. As he’s the strongest child born in many years, he’d be practically forced to it due to those magical abilities.

“In any case, I’m going to get ready. We’re having dinner in two hours according to Father, and I want to be ready by then.”

“We’re having dinner in two hours. Isn’t that a little too early to call it dinner?”

“I don’t know, Aya, but I do know that he’ll probably be mad if we don’t do as he says. So, you two better get on that, as well.”

Doing as Sora said, Aya and Ken walked away in a fast manner to prepare themselves for the event their father had posed out for them.

He finally reached a specific closed door on the third floor of the living quarters and opened it, revealing a medium size room, perfect for one person.

Laying his school bag on the desk close to the door, he opened a certain drawer on the side of the room opposite to his desk, and placed what he’d searched for, that being various pieces of fresh clothing, on his desk.

Sora finished showering, and prepared everything else that was necessary for his family’s “dinner”. It was going to happen a few hours too early for it to be considered a dinner, but at this point, he paid no mind to that.

Once he was ready, he walked through the monastery to reach the personal dining hall located inside the living quarters.

Even though the monastery had a dining hall built for the trainees, the core Yukisaki family always had dinner in one that resided in the residence area. One that was off limits to everyone with exception to them.

When he slid the door towards his left in order to enter, he saw that everyone else was already in the table.

From the door, the table was set in a vertical manner. A feast perfect for a main family of 5 resided on it. There was also a balcony on the other side of the room, located behind the main head of the table.

There were 6 seats on this table.

On the right, sat Sora’s siblings. Closest to the door was Aya, Ken next to him.

On the left, near the true head of the table sat Sora’s mother, Ayako Yukisaki.

And on the true head…

“You’re finally here, Sora.” The serious man with a face very similar to Sora sat.

The current head of the Yukisaki family. His father, Rikuto Yukisaki.

“My apologies for taking so long, Father. You know how I feel about showers.” With a smile, Sora responded.

“It’s okay but be earlier next time. Come now. Take a seat.”

Sora was about to sit next to his mother, but his father said otherwise.

“No no. Sit on the other head.”

“Huh? Really?” Sora was both confused and surprised at what his father just told him.

He was told to sit on the other head of that table. It was practically unheard of for anyone to ever sit there. That seat was reserved for one specific person. The one that…

Regardless, Sora obeyed his father’s order, and so he sat down there.

This doesn’t feel right…

At the same time as he thought to himself, his father began speaking after clearing his throat.

“As you might’ve expected, I gathered all of you here today for a certain reason.”

“Yeah, I think we figured, father.”

“Well, as you might imagine, Aya, we’re here to talk about a certain person.”

He paused and extended his hand and pointed his index finger right in front of him.

“Sora, in just 2 days, you’ll become the next heir of the Yukisaki family, and in order to officially begin the ceremony to come, some things must be taken care of first.

“Huh? What do you mean? I thought we’d already talked about this before.”

“We did, yes. However, there were a few things left out from that conversation, that being the reason as to why I requested all of you to join me in this early dinner.”

Another pause. For some odd reason, the room was…strangely quiet, as if there was an awkward atmosphere.

“However, I think we should eat first. So, everyone, let’s begin this small feast!”

And so, after the 5 of them clasped their hands together and said the daily “Thank you for the meal!”, they began to eat the tasty meal laid out before their eyes.