Making the Choice

[Kuzan POV]

"What?" I asked the boy who was staring daggers at me, with hate as I had expected but...

"Is there a dash of sympathy that I see in your eyes, Baki?"

"Come on, I'm all ears, spit it out, brother..."

The boy thought for a moment quietly, deliberating, I'm sure, his choice of words.

"He's already won, Kuzan."

"Ha," I scoffed. This idiot boy, thinking I wasn't aware of my actions, thinking I was acting out of impulse or anger. "Baki, let's play a little game..."

"How would you feel if I were to kill Yujiro right now, huh?"

The boy continued his gaze, this time looking as if all hope was lost.

"I'm serious, Baki. How would you feel if, after all the hard work you'd been through, he would simply 'give up' and declare you the victor of a fight before it even starts?"

Neither Baki nor Yujiro knew exactly what they were forcing me to do with their actions. I had initially planned to wait a few years, at least until my 18th birthday, before making that decision. However, his refusal to even consider my request made my decision that much easier.

I was quickly plateauing in strength.

My goal had never been to become the strongest man alive, nor had it been to just beat Yujiro Hanma.

It was strength itself.

'I wanted to become stronger.'

"That'll never happen."

Baki dismissed my claims with a wave of his hand and a relaxed look on his face as he started to lay there comfortably on his seat.

"Baki, answer my question."

"Please..."

"You know your father best. Tell me, how much pain would it cause him if I were to simply disappear?"

The boy instantly stood up out of his seat at my claims, his heart now beating with full intensity at the 'threat' I was invoking.

"HAHAHA," I took the boy's facial expression as enough of an answer to my question.

I truly had nothing against the boy. It had been his father who had started all of this, annoying the living daylights out of me by refusing to 'return my calls.'

"Ring... Ring..."

"Hmmm..." I picked up the phone, not having expected to receive an answer so soon. "So, what did he say, Captain Strydum?"

"Boy..." the voice of a demon instead answered from the other line.

"That doesn't sound like you, Captain. Got a cold or something?"

"The restaurant, tonight. I'll finally give you a chance to impress me again."

And he hung up.

I quickly told the pilot about the change of destinations and got ready for the meal, wearing the same clothes I had been saving just for this occasion.

[4 hours later]

"You sure you don't wanna come in, Baki?" The boy seemed unsure of how exactly to feel right now. I was sure that he would feel a little jealous if not for the fact that I was more 'enraged' rather than grateful at how things had turned out.

"Suit yourself." I walked into the luxury restaurant and was greeted at the front door by a professional-looking waiter.

"Hello, Mister Hanma. We've been expecting you."

"It's Rosen."

"Uh, welcome, Mister Rosen. Please follow me this way."

It was dead silent for the rest of the walk until we reached the private dining room, where I saw the demon sitting quietly with a smile on his face as he was taking a sip from a glass of wine.

"Thank you for guiding me here. You may leave for now." I spoke to the waiter while 'pushing' him out of the room, plastering on a pure expression of excitement onto my face as I did so.

"Kuzan, at least wait for us to have dinner first be-"

"I'm gonna save you from your act, Yujiro."

I cut off the man as he was speaking, which instead of angering him only made him happier to see my 'defiance,' to see how 'mad' he had truly made me with his actions.

"Let me guess..." I continued mocking the man.

"You're gonna say something along the lines of... did you really think I was gonna fight you, huh boy?"

"It's 30 years too early for me to even consider such a thing,..."

I stopped my poor imitation of the man's demonic voice, who had only grown more and more pleased seeing my repeated 'outbursts' since the start of our 'dinner.'

"Did it make you happy to see my frustrations, Yujiro?" I finally dropped the mask, letting a bloody grin finally take over my face.

"Did it make you laugh when you heard just how 'insane' I was becoming?" For the first time in this conversation, the man finally realized that something was off as he raised one of his eyebrows at my facial expression.

"Did your dad come to you asking you to 'save' me from myself?" Finally, the smile on the man's face was completely gone as he was getting ever and ever closer to putting all of the pieces together...

"Yujiro Hanma, the strongest man alive..."

"How does it feel like to be tricked not once but twice by your own flesh and blood?"

I slammed my palm onto the table as I was getting up, putting an end to this little farce.

"Yujiro, you think I have no one else to turn to because you didn't..."

"You think I'm just as stuck and constantly in a rage because you were..."

My smile only grew wider at the pain I would soon cause to this man for trying to 'toy' with me.

"I'm nothing like you."

The man still did not jump out of his seat, considering my words to be some kind of a bluff.

'Keep thinking that, Yujiro, keep thinking that...'

I would prove him wrong, however, as instead of continuing the meal, I simply turned my back to him...

And left.

"Hahahahaha!" I could hear him, that demon chuckling to himself at my 'act' even from the first floor, thinking he'd finally 'broken' me, thinking I had finally gone delusional from my lack of 'fun.'

I couldn't lie, I was a tad bit disappointed at how it all turned out. However, at a certain point, my desire to fight the man started to conflict with my path for strength.

He wanted me to wait, and I wanted to fight. He wanted to 'devour' me, and I simply wanted to grow stronger.

He had always been a 'roadblock' in my path for strength, however, this time he had become something like quicksand, trying to slow me down to drag me down to his measly level of strength.

'I would have fallen for it too if it hadn't been for the revelation that I received on that day.'

It was the first of the many hard choices I had to make since coming to this world, but I had never questioned it, abandoning my fight with that demon, a fight I would have surely lost, to come save them at the possibility of their death.

If either Orochi or Shibikawa had instead 'cleaned up' the mess, I might have never borne witness to the truth of this world, and the fragility of those living upon it.

Even him, that man turned demon, could do nothing but be 'stuck' at where he was, unable to move forward...

'Not me, I'm nothing like them.'

[5 hours later]

The helicopter finally landed in Heilong-Jiang, and I quickly rushed out of the seat before we even fully touched down.

I was simply too excited, finally able to 'lay off' my act now that that demon was fully convinced of it. I had nothing left to worry about, as I was sure, even in my absence, that man would just praise my 'self-control' and continue on his waiting.

It hadn't been easy baiting such a big fish into my net, but I had finally done the impossible that even nations had failed to do...

I had gained control over Yujiro Hanma.

'So stupid,' I shook my head at how disappointing it had all been, to not even get to say a final 'goodbye' to him before moving on.

Still, I continued on my path, eventually making it all the way to those all too familiar stone steps that I had climbed at the start of my journey to power...

However, I was never the reminiscing type, as I simply ran up the stairs as fast as humanly possible before finally I had made it to the top.

"HA!"

I was met with a familiar scene, of the countless disciples of the Temple in the middle of their training out in the courtyard, perfectly reflecting the sun's rays with their bald heads that I could finally look at, even their shiniest of spots.

"HA!" they chanted in unison while practicing some moves.

"Hello!" I spoke to one of the Temple's instructors, who was obviously caught off guard by my presence.

'Well, I had gotten into a habit of always training, maintaining my Shadowstep skill regularly.'

"Mind taking me to my family?"

The old master immediately answered yes, as if afraid of angering me further considering the natural danger signals I was still giving off from my body.

"Ah! Master Kaku, it's so good to see you again," I performed a little bow while greeting my old master, while at the same time thanking him for all of the effort he had put into guarding my family around the clock.

"As you can see, Master, I'm perfectly fine. You don't have to keep 'protecting' them from even me now, do you?" The old man raised his eyebrows in question after I finally dropped my act in front of him as well, which resulted in me getting a bunch of slaps in the face by the old man.

"You bastard of a disciple! Making me work for nothing!

"Playing with this old man's heart and even that of your own family!" he had every right to be pissed, thus I simply took every reprimand, criticism, and slap that he had left to give before he finally gave up and continued on his merry way with a small smile plastered onto his face.

I walked to a rather secluded part of the Temple, which was not to be confused with something barren. In fact, I had made sure to install it with just about every amenity one could think of to make my family's stay here more 'comfortable.'

I saw my sister standing there, staring at her own reflection inside of the small pool. She stood there with a frown on her face, with none of the jovial attitude I had grown accustomed to seeing.

And it hurt.

I hid my presence from her as I got closer to her before finally pulling her into a hug from behind, which I'm sure scared her to death.

"AHHH—"

"It's me, Melissa." I spoke quietly to the girl in an attempt to drown out her screams of bloody murder.

"It's gonna be okay, Melissa." I patted the girl who only continued to latch harder onto my body after turning around and holding me with a vice grip, afraid that she would lose me again.

"Everything's gonna be okay."