The Inside

As the door closed behind me, mutterings filled the cave as we were all plunged into darkness. I came to a stop, feeling a few people continuing to push ahead and nudging into me, considering they were taller, I was almost knocked over on a number of occasions and I struggled to stay on my feet, I'd rather not be trampled underfoot and die here.

But for fuck's sake, how many people were there?

Eventually, as the sound of people grew further away I took a deep breath; lips twisting into a frown and began following after them. I had no intention to be at the front of the group, nor in the middle nor in the back. I wanted to be part of my very own separate group as far away from people as possible.

Here we were, trapped underground in complete darkness with no idea of how long we would be here for. I had also read enough manga and watched enough anime to know that this wasn't going to be as simple as surviving. As Saechōrō had told me, Saeko had already undergone this test and completed it. I had already lost to her once, I wouldn't lose again.

As I stepped out into an open chamber I looked around at the fire burning, there was only a few, barely enough to light parts of the room, the rest of it covered in darkness. And surrounding those fires, the various martial artists that had come here were all huddled around them.

But instead of joining them, I instead moved towards a dark corner of the chamber. I had no intention of huddling around the fire, all it would do was blind one's vision. In a place like this and from the way Saechōrō had been speaking, fires like these would be nothing more than traps. Therefore, staying away from them and instead of spending my time adjusting to the darkness would be the best decision to make.

The fire would only limit my vision and if they were traps like I suspected, then I needed every advantage I could get.

-X- Line Break -X-

"Congratulations, you passed the first test and in only one week." Saechōrō praised me as I stepped out from the underground cave. All around various older martial artists whose students had entered had gathered around to see who would emerge victoriously. Some look disappointed, others angry upon seeing me, a child stepping out. But most looked intrigued and even envious.

"How long did it take Saeko?" This made the Busujima patriarch smirk.

"Three weeks. So you beat her quite handily." He then placed one hand upon my shoulder and began leading me through the crowd. "Very impressive if I do say so myself, I honestly expected you to take much longer, considering your penchant for laziness."

That made me pause momentarily, quickly keeping up with him when Saechōrō pushed me along. "What do you mean by that?"

"I watched your fights, and after your loss to Saeko, I watched your training sessions at the various dojos you are a part of," Saechōrō explained. "Until you faced Saeko, you fought with a certain level of boredom, as if it were beneath you and with a great amount of ease. And with your training sessions, you just go through the motions. You have talent, as well as maturity and wisdom beyond your years, it allows you to do things no other child is capable of. But you have no desire to train properly or outside of it."

This made me scoff. "I train hard."

"For you, it may seem that way. But it's hardly difficult training what you do, the only reason you've achieved what you have is because you're smarter than the others. Take that away and you wouldn't be much of a fighter, no better than average." Saechōrō came to a pause before a truck, a man sat in the front seat. "If you actually worked hard, beating Saeko would have been easy."

"I do a number of other martial arts. That's why she won." I argued.

"Even so, if you actually worked hard in all of your martial arts, beating Saeko would have still been easy for you," Saechōrō said. "There's a saying, hard work beat talents when talent doesn't work hard. It's a simple as that, and you Mikoto, don't work hard as you should."

Saying nothing further upon that, I instead looked at the clothes and food laid out upon the back of the truck and then down at the ones I wore. There were big tears and holes, you could also make out my ribs from the malnutrition caused by the lack of food I had eaten over the course of the week.

"Get changed, I'll be taking you to the second area of your training."

-X- Line Break -X-

I now knew why the first test had seemed so familiar to me.

It reminded me of the Gu Ritual performed in Kengan Ashura, though slightly different. In this world, martial artists sent their students into the Gu Ritual in order to not only test them but also enable them to grow.

Now you might be asking, how did I discover this connection? Well, the answer to that is simple, I'm now looking at the second instance of something taken from the Kengan Universe, the Inside. One of the numerous sectors of land in dozens of countries all over the world that was used as a dumping ground for criminals of all kinds. Again, there were differences, mainly that in Kengan it was made to appear as if there was only one Inside and that was in Japan. However, apparently in this world, this was a government program that was used by many numerous countries.

Criminals that could not be reformed and Death Row inmates were all placed here. Rather than spending resources to keep those inmates on Death Row and to kill them, and rather than waste resources on repeat offenders, they were all dumped here.

Honestly, it was a little fucked up, Saechōrō himself had not shied away from the details. So you may be asking, why was I here? Well, the answer to that is simple. My second test was to conquer the Inside quite literally. When I asked, I was told that this was a special test purely for me, a way to improve my lack of motivation towards exercise.

Didn't I just feel special?

Looking around my surroundings I looked at the prostitutes, gangsters and all the other trash that society had washed their hands off and I just turned my nose up in disgust. This place was a cesspit of piss and shit. And above all else, I had no fucking clue on where to start with my whole conquest of the Inside.

-X- Line Break -X-

Tense, that was the best way to describe the atmosphere of the Inside. It was a tenseness that was never really prevalent within it. After all, despite being a lawless zone, various districts ruled by certain gangs had begun to form and take shape. Gangs that had no interest in breaking the peace and in fact, worked together to make themselves richer.

This was perhaps one of the calmer Lawless Sectors in the world, but even by the standards of the worst, civilised cities, it was a living Hell. It was one of the reasons he liked to visit this place, it was calm and peaceful while still retaining all of the fun lawlessness that only the Inside possessed. But this tenseness could only mean one thing, there was a war brewing which certainly caught him by surprise.

A peaceful zone like this going to war? That just doesn't happen, especially considering all the people here preferred trade and peace.

Sitting down at a nearby table in the tavern, he indicated for the barkeep to come over. "What's going on?"

"You haven't heard?"

"Only just got back." The barkeep nodded his head in understanding. "Well, about a week ago, this kid turned up. Headed straight for Девять пауков (Nine Spider) and just took over. Tore through dozens of gangsters and then took out their heads. A few days later after crushing any rebellion, he just moved onto the next districts, Восемь ястребов (Eight Hawk), Семь Королей Лошадей (Seven King Horse), t-then he started making moves for Десять Демонических Змей (Ten Demon Snake)."

"Has he now?" That made the man smirk. "How very interesting. Tell me, where can I find this boy?"

"He's held out in Девять пауков (Nine Spider) last I heard." Getting up off the seat, the man left and the silence that had reigned over the room was broken by hushed whisperings. The barkeep himself leaned forwards; hands braced against the table in order to catch himself from falling. Sweat trickled down his forehead as he sucked in air in an attempt to calm the rapid beating of his heart.

-X- Line Break -X-

I have to admit, despite my initial confusion on where to start, taking over three of the districts in the Inside was quite easy. Sure they were the smallest of the bunch, but together they gave me a much larger territory rivalling some of the others. But I knew that rushing things too much would only put me in danger, I had no time limit to how long I would have to take to conquer the Inside so I would take my time.

Rushing things would certainly give me more time to train, but it could also kill me off. I nearly lost my life a few times during the Gu Ritual and had come closer a dozen more times in my take over the three weakest districts. Plus, it was a common strategy by larger and more established gangs to work together to defeat a smaller, more ambitious gang that was disturbing the status quo.

Which is exactly what I was doing.

No, once I took over the tenth district, then I'd take my time, consolidate my hold before expanding further. It was just good sense, especially considering I had no intention of dying at any point. Rushing things would only put me at greater risk which I did no want.

"B-boss, we've got someone here to see you." One of my thugs stuttered out, head bowed, and I once again had to pat myself on the back for a job well done. To be honest, in my old life I could never have considered killing and beating people within an inch of their life as I have, it just hadn't been who I was. And if I were being even more honest, I doubt if these people were actually real that I'd be capable of it either.

However, that's the thing, they weren't real.

They were figments of someone's imagination and put onto paper. Some of them were just nameless and faceless extras that no one paid to remember. They weren't real and therefore, I felt no guilt, no remorse for any of the acts I did.

All because they weren't people, they were just obstacles, steppingstones on my path to absolute power. And like any obstacle that got in my way, I'd remove them. "And who is it that wishes to speak to me?"

"I have to admit, when I was told that a kid had been the cause of all this fuss, I had honestly expected someone a little older." A loud voice boomed and a moment later, the door was thrown open. As soon as the figure revealed himself, I saw everyone around the room duck their heads, bodies tremble in fear in a way I had never been able to make them feel.

Instantly I knew that this man was bad news.

"But I have to admit, it takes serious balls and talent to do what you've done." The man was tall, bulging with muscle with menacing and almost wild like features. He had long blonde hair swept back with big eyes that shone with a certain light, making his slitted pupils more pronounced and menacing. "Tell me, kid, you fancy being my student?"