Chapter 17 - A Clash of 2 Kings

"Haa! Kawakami Style – Young Lightning!" Kazuko yelled as she thrusts her naginata forward.

She's expecting a lightning to manifest around the tip, but get nothing in return even after ten and fifteen seconds passed by.

She sighs and raise her hands high in the air in defeat manner, "Ahh!! This is so difficult! No matter what I try, I can't seem manifest the lightning as it should be!"

Yōta chuckles as he watches the youngest Kawakami from the sideline. He can see what makes Kazuko unable to perform the technique with a simple glance.

Both of them are currently in Kawakami Temple, training together like they promised yesterday.

Since it's Saturday, so there's no school today too which is why Kazuko woke up early more than usual and drags Yōta with her to help her practice her technique.

They've been training together for 4 hours now.

His chuckle grabs Kazuko's attention as she pouts at him, "Muu, don't laugh, Yōkkun! That's not nice! I'm trying my best here!"

"Sorry, sorry, you're just too cute that I couldn't helped it." Yōta replied back as he stands up and approach Kazuko. "By the way, you're doing it wrong, Kazuko-chan."

Kazuko tilts her head in confused manner, "Am I?"

"Yes. Let me show you."

Yōta clenches his left fist and infuses it with his willpower, creating a black coat on his fist and it emits a focused energy in a form of black lightning.

He then brings his black fist to his side before throwing it in front of him.

"Kawakami Style: Ryuo Revised – Black Lightning."

DAAARRR!!!

With how fast Yōta delivers his punch, he creates a linear of gigantic black lightning bolt and powerful shockwave from his fist, demolishing the training area in front of him .

Kazuko looks at Yōta with starry eyes as she claps her hands excitedly with how Yōta executed the technique with such perfection and such power.

Crackles of black lightning are still dancing around his fist before it dissipates completely when he faces his way to Kazuko.

"Do you see the difference?"

Kazuko starts groaning in confusion as she's struggling on how to answer that question.

She's been observing Yōta from the beginning from him infusing his energy until he releases it, but she can't see anything different than the amount of energy that he infused into his arm.

"Is it the amount of energy I used?" Kazuko tilts her head while looking at her arm as she clenches and unclenches it.

"Tell me, Kazuko-chan." Yōta started as he smiled softly at the girl, "When you're executing this technique, what image do you have on it?"

"Umm... Umm..." Kazuko struggles to form her words before she tilts her head once again and answer the question unsurely, "I just imagine lightning to appear after I infused my Ki to my weapon...?"

Yōta chuckles once again at her cute way of thinking.

In response to that, Kazuko whines and punches Yōta's chest repeatedly while puffing her cheeks out like a squirrel.

"Yōkkun!!"

"Hehe, sorry, sorry." Yōta raised half of his arms and backs away, he then clears his throat to continue his lesson, "Anyway, just like I'm saying, you're doing it wrong, Kazuko-chan. You shouldn't do it like that. Only monster like Momo-senpai who could do things like that with her imagination."

"What am I suppose to do then?"

"Shake."

Kazuko instinctively give her paw hand on Yōta's open palm without hesitation after she heard the command, her ponytail is swaying excitedly behind her as an imaginary dog ears appeared on top of her head.

Yōta smiles at the gesture before he flips Kazuko's paw hand around on his palm, "Try to infuse your Ki into your arm first."

Kazuko narrows her eyes as she starts concentrating her energy into her arm. It lits in orange light after she's done with it.

"Good. Now, try to separate your energy to three parts, let's see..." Yōta hummed for a while before he nods his head.

"Imagine this part is Capt who wants to play." He points her elbow.

"This is Miyako-san who doesn't invited." He points her forearm.

"And this is Moro-san who invited but doesn't want to play." He points the tip of her fingers.

Kazuko giggles at the explanation Yōta just gave, it's always easy to understand since he loves to make the lesson easy and fun for her.

She then follow Yōta's instruction by imagining the scenario of very positive Capt's inviting everyone to play but forget to invite Miyako and she's sulking in the corner with very negative aura surrounding her and the small positive Moro's complaining he doesn't want to play because he's bad with the game that Capt wants to play.

By doing that, she successfully separated the energy in her arm into three parts.

"Good job." Yōta pats Kazuko's head as a reward and the girl smiles widely at the praise. "Now charges Capt's part with more energy and extend it downward before releasing it through your fingertips."

The youngest Kawakami nods her head and focus on the task with great concentration as she starts charging her elbow with more Ki, and she can feels trickling of power dancing around her arteries before it travels downward in very chaotic pattern.

As she feels the energy finally reached her fingertips, she jerks her hand and a crackle of orange lightning manifested around her hand.

She stares at the hand with big smile and starry eyes before she points her lightning-clad fist into the sky enthusiastically while laughing, "Hahaha! Yatta! I did it! I did it!!"

While Kazuko jumping and running around the area happily, Yōta simply chuckles at the sight before he notices three people approaching him from behind.

"Looks like she's finally getting the hang of the technique." Momoyo commented as she sticks to Yōta and casually slings her arm around his shoulders.

"She is." Yōta nods his head in response, "She's been trying to copy us when she's executing that technique all this time which is why she can't properly controlling her Ki."

"Hohoho, I've noticed that too." Tesshin chimed in from the side while stroking his long beard, "Momoyo and you are special case. So, there's nothing good to make both of you as the exemplar. Momoyo can easily manifested any power through her imagination only. There's nothing you can take as an example from someone like that, unless you can do the same thing too, and you, my boy..." He peers at Yōta's aura with one eye, "... is using a whole different type of energy."

"Haki. What a unique and fascinating application of power." Lu Yi hummed as he looks at the destruction that Yōta caused with his punch earlier, "By manifesting your willpower and infused it into any part of your bodies, you can create an invisible armor to provide yourself an incredible offensive and defensive capabilities."

Lu Yi tried to do the same as Yōta but failed magnificently as he shakes his head with a sigh, no matter how many times he tried to exerts his willpower and clad it into his body parts, nothing ever come out.

He understands the problem was.

His Ki is disturbing the energy from flowing through his body and completely reject it when he tried to use Haki.

It seems these energies are like oil and water. You simply can't merge them or put them in one container as they'll oppose and reject each other.

According to Yōta there's three types of Haki...

Color of Arms, or more known as Ryuo, is a form of Haki that allows the user to use their own willpower to create, in essence, an invisible armor around himself, providing incredible offensive and defensive capabilities.

And just like Lu Yi, the Kawakami Temple couldn't learned this Haki because their Ki are tempering with their body to stop the Ryuo to flowing inside them.

It's a great tool for a defective man like Yōta as a meant to fight against people who can use Ki equally.

Color of Observation is a form of willpower that grant the user a sixth sense that allows them to sense the presence, strength, and emotions of others, as well as gain limited precognitive abilities.

This is the only type of Haki that the Kawakami Temple could learn. Most of the trainees in the temple are already quite efficient with this one.

Even Kazuko is very good at this type of Haki, if she is ranked in how good she is, then she'll be ranked 6th.

The first place is Yōta, second is Momoyo, third is Tesshin, fourth is Miyako, and fifth is Lu Yi himself.

And the last Haki, the Color of the Supreme King, is a rare form of Haki that allows the user to exert their own willpower over others. This type of Haki cannot be attained through training and only one in several million people are born with this ability.

It is said that whoever possesses this type of Haki has the qualities of a king, and are known as Supreme Rulers.

There's only several people that Lu Yi knew who had this Haki...

Nagakura Yōta.

Kawakami Momoyo.

Kawakami Tesshin.

Kuki 'Emperor' Mikado.

Kuki Ageha.

Hume Hellsing.

Kuki Hideo, currently in dormant state.

And Kazama Shōichi, currently in dormant state as well.

That's how rare it is to have this kind of Haki. After all, not all can have the qualities of a king when they born to this world.

"Kazuko." Tesshin called out to the still excited girl.

Kazuko stops her celebration as she turns her head to the group before she smile brightly and run to them, showing her lightning-clad fist in excited manner, "Gramps, Onee-sama, Lu-sensei!! Look, look!! I can manifest the lightning now!"

"Hohoho, congratulations." Tesshin reaches his hand out to his youngest granddaughter to pat her head, "Now, how about you try[Young Lightning] in front of us?"

Kazuko turns her head in Yōta's direction and the Nagakura gives her a soft smile and a nod, Momoyo beside him also throw a thumb up in her direction.

With that, the youngest Kawakami salutes the four of them with very enthusiastic manner before she picks her naginata up and takes her stance.

She then charges the naginata with her Ki through the same method with her arm like earlier.

As the blade of her naginata lits in orange light and a small lightning snaking around the tip, upon noticing that, Kazuko smiles brightly and clenches her toes, "Kawakami Style – Young Lightning!"

She moves in lightning-speed and thrust her naginata forward, leaving a linear orange lightning in her trails and unleashing a shockwave that blast everything in front of her away.

Looking at the damage she just caused, she starts giggling uncontrollably as she's finally able to perform the technique properly.

Lu Yi claps his hands and smiles at the performance Kazuko just showed, "Marvelous, Kazuko. You got the technique right."

She's indeed executed the technique perfectly, there's no visible mistakes with the way she's performing it.

"Hoho, that was beautifully done, Kazuko." Tesshin nods his head while giving his granddaughter a gentle smile.

"Ehehe~ Thank you, Lu-sensei, Gramps!" Kazuko hugs Lu Yi and Tesshin respectively.

"Fufu, well done, Wanko." Momoyo approaches her little sister with a smile on her face before patting the happy girl's head, "Try to practice it more later to perfect it, so you can generate the original power even without taking the stance."

"Yes, Onee-sama!" She leans her head into Momoyo's palm, basking in her big sister's affections.

Yōta smiles at the interaction between the family, looking at them just make him miss his family too.

"Yōkkun~!!"

Kazuko suddenly jumps on Yōta in excited manner as she locks his torso with her limbs like koala, she buries her face in his chest and shakes her head giddily.

She's giggling all the way before she looks above to the man who always by her side, supporting and helping her when she needs it.

Her face blooming like a flower as her eyes glints with such emotion that she can't really express with words when their eyes are meet each other.

Yōta's face softened up as he reaches his hands out to support Kazuko's body while the other to gently caress her head.

"I know you can do it, Kazuko-chan."

With just that word, her stomach was blazing with all kinds of fireworks insides and her heart is racing so fast and furious that it's hard for her to look at Yōta's face anymore with how red her face is right now.

She once again buries her face in Yōta's arms, tightening her hold on him and conveying all of her emotions and expressions through the gesture.

"She's fallen hard, isn't she?" Momoyo shakes her head in fond manner as she looks at the two lovebirds in front of her.

"Hohoho, it's nice to be young." Tesshin laughs while stroking his beard.

"Aiya, Kazuko's aura is so pink right now, you can even see flowers fluttering around her." Lu Yi joked as he playfully covers his face with his hand.

"Okay, that's enough of flirting around, you two." Momoyo clapped her hands loudly to catch the attention of the love birds.

And the result is within their expectation as Yōta and Kazuko flinched a bit before they separate themselves with Kazuko's red face getting more red and she's screeching in embarrassment behind her hands.

Yōta on the other side chuckles nervously while scratching his red cheek.

Momoyo looks at the phone in her hand for a time, it's already 09:10 AM, she then hums before looking at Yōta with big grin on her face, "We still have 1 hour before we meet with the others in riverbed. So, let's have a sparring match."

Yōta stares Momoyo for a second before fixing his glasses, "Sure."

Lu Yi looks concerned for an understandable reason as he looks toward the Grand Master of Kawakami Temple, "Is this okay, Grand Master?"

"Hmm..." Tesshin hummed thoughtfully while looking at the two fighters who are moving into the middle training arena, "I think it's okay, it's just a sparring match. I doubt Yōta would use his strongest style in this match, just look at his stance right now."

Kazuko and Lu Yi turns their head in Yōta's direction, and true what Tesshin just said, Yōta is using his fourth kenjutsu style.

"You won't use Mugen Ittō in this fight?" Momoyo raised her eyebrows, slightly feeling disappointed.

Yōta shakes his head in response as he draws Higekiri from its scabbard and hold the handle with two hands in low-stance, "No. I can't afford to destroy this place after all."

"You can just restore it after."

"... Bear with me here, Senpai. This is a simple sparring match after all."

Momoyo sighs in defeat as she realizes that there's no use to make him use his strongest style in this match.

"Fine. I guess I can still have my fun against you in that style." She uttered before taking her Kawakami stance.

On the sideline, Tesshin, Lu Yi, and Kazuko are watching at the interaction with interest, especially after Momoyo's taking her stance.

"Onee-sama is always taking her stance when she's fighting Yōkkun." Kazuko commented.

"That's because she can't afford to be defenseless when it comes to Yōta." Tesshin replied while stroking his beard, "Despite his young age, Yōta's swordsmanship is already at peak, you can't really let your guard down against 'that'."

"Right." Lu Yi nods his head in agreement, "When fighting against Yōta-kun, you really won't know what he will 'cut' until it's already too late. He's in my number one list of people that I don't want to fight with."

Tesshin jovially laugh at that statement, if he's being honest here, even he doesn't want to fight against 'that'.

There's nothing good when you're trying to fight against 'it'.

At least, Yōta is sensible enough to not always use his Mugen Ittō against someone in fight.

He's been only using that style once when he snapped at the kids who's bullying Miyako, and the result is big disaster.

Tesshin believes the slash that Yōta unleashed at him back then will definitely 'cut' his life without fail, if not for Momoyo's sacrificing her arms to protect him.

He's lucky to only got a permanent scar when he's fighting Yōta in his strongest.

And as he's reminiscing about the battle...

DUUUUAAAARRRR!!!!

A large explosion suddenly occured in the middle of arena as the impact blew back all of the walls and objects on the area and shook the entire Kawakami Temple, completely demolisihing the entire arena into a lay waste.

This completely caught the spectators' guard off as Tesshin opened his eyes wide with comical look on his face, Lu Yi is making a weird pose beside the old man, and Kazuko is jumping in surprise and latch herself into her adopted grandfather's side tightly.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Black lightning energy crackles around the area as a blast of wind still blowing the area without a sign of it stopping any time with Momoyo and Yōta are in the middle of the destroyed area.

And the most shocking thing is that Momoyo's fist and Yōta's blade not even touching at all.

The energy is stretching up high and powerful enough to be seen from anywhere on Japan.

All of the martial artists in Japan are currently looking up to the sky where a massive rift in the sky above Kanagawa Prefecture.

The sky is splitting into two.

This is a grand opening that's very fitting for the battle of 2 Kings.