Righteous Minds

The Crystal Plates Conference Room, Tesmuth, Realm of the Humans:

"Have you heard how they became ranked as crystal plates?" The stern, 40-ish years old woman asks before answering her own question, "The power scaler determined so." She glances at an older, well-armoured man.

"Yes, well, it is rather surprising, but after multiple re-tests it's frankly certain to be no fluke." the older man says.

"Tch, bullshit, they must have used some form of dark magic or something to manipulate the results." The 30-ish year old, stern, fully-kitted leader spoke.

"Be quiet, they're here." A young man says.

Shinji, Kasumi and Aki are let into the room containing all members of the "Unbeatable Five", the crystal plate adventurers, the strongest and most influential in the kingdom. The table they sat around was perfectly sized, with three seats remaining, almost as if it was created for the 3 new members' arrival.

The Unbeatable Five all look at Shinji's group, some unpleasantly, others with a welcoming gaze.

"Welcome, new crystal plates, you can call me Elgar," The older man says, "Come, take a seat."

Kasumi, being the closest, sits next to Elgar, whereas Shinji takes the seat at the opposite end of the table to the leader, leaving Aki to sit next to youngest member of the five. The girl smiles as Aki sits down and says: "My names Selene, nice to meet you." Selene holds out her hand and Aki shakes it. Despite looking unfamiliar, and having a unrecognised aura, she is strangely familiar. Before Aki can introduce himself in return, someone else speaks.

"Now that you're all here, it only makes sense that we introduce ourselves." Elgar says, "You already know my name, I specialise in close-combat offensive magic, but the girl opposite me is Selene, she specialises in stealth, but also dabbles in healing magic." Selene nods and smiles proudly. "Next to me is Ellie, she specialises in long and mid-range offensive magic." The middle-aged woman glances at Shinji, who is sat with his chin resting on his knuckles, just like the man opposite him is. "Next to Selene is York, he specialises in heavy defence move magic." York nervously scratches his head and waves. "Finally, at the head of the table is Captain Curtis, our leader of sorts, he's more of a jack of all trades, pretty much good at everything." Elgar finished introductions, but Curtis speaks up.

"I also excel in sword skill, as a former head knight, my combat ability is unmatched." Curtis says, with a consistent stern tone and expression, looking right at Shinji, who just like Aki and Kasumi, is yet was to have spoken a word upon entry up until this point.

"As a fellow swordsman, i would love to test each others skill." Aki says to Curtis, with a brief smirk.

"Tch, if you want to be humiliated be my guest, none of you have even introduced YOURselves either, hurry the fuck up already." Curtis arrogantly responds.

"Just call me Aki, Captain… you can find out what i excel in later on." Aki smirks, mildly annoying Curtis, but Ellie as well.

"Uh, Kasumi Abiko, i'm good at everything i think." Kasumi says, pretty much telling the truth, but also to the annoyance of those same too adventurers, while the rest seem indifferent. Despite clearly being his turn to speak, Shinji doesn't speak up, enveloped in thought, staring at Curtis.

"Oi, little big man, it's your turn!" Curtis says to Shinji, visibly angering Kasumi for a brief moment, increasing the build up of tension in the room.

"Shinji Natsuki." He finally says, and falls back to silence again.

"Got nothing else to say? That kind of attitude really pisses me off, Natsuki." Curtis says, Addressing Shinji by his fake surname, "You also look familiar, as if i've met you before, why is that?" He says, almost demanding an answer to such a relative question.

"I've been told i highly resemble Prince Hirohiko, that's likely the reason." Shinji spoke again, moving his head off of his knuckles and into his palm, as his elbow rests on the table. His hair colour was changed to be fully black to reduce the doppelgänger effect, but his facial features remained the same.

"I see…. now that that's out of the way, how'd you do it, you little shits." Curtis is clearly serious, as he accuses Shinji's group. "What kind of magic, or dark magic, spell did you use to manipulate the power scaler result? Because you're clearly not worthy to be here, your auras tell me you're above average AT BEST!" Curtis slams his hands on the table.

"Such disrespect won't be tolerated in this line of work, we will find out why and you WILL be reprimanded." Ellie takes Curtis's side.

"Aren't you guys…. jumping to that conclusion a little early?" York speaks his mind.

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH YORK, YOU'RE LUCKY TO EVEN BE HERE YOURSELF!" Curtis loses his cool, York pipes down in defeat.

"Ha-…. hahahahahaha." Shinji breaks into laughter, only adding fuel to the flame. "You really do act exactly how you look, MR CAPTAIN CURTIS, SIR!" Shinji says, mockingly before laughing a bit further.

"You… COCKY BASTARD, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? YOU'RE A FUCKING CHILD, WHY DON'T YOU PROVE TO ME THAT YOU'RE WORTHY TO WEAR THAT CRYSTAL PLATE?" Curtis's short fuse is shown as his rage boils over, making the tension in the room ten times greater.

"You're not suggesting what i think you are… are you? Elgar asks, dreading Curtis's response.

"I AM, OLD MAN!"

"I accept." Shinji says, rather calmly in comparison. "You want some kind of duel? A one-on-one of some sort right? I accept."

Curtis smirks, "You catch on quick, cheating bastard, now, just sign this contract… with blood of course." He generates a large light magic spell, one that allows soul contracts to be formed under certain conditions agreed upon by both parties. It only works if both parties agree of their own free will, if one of them is unwilling, even if they do sign it, it becomes void. The consequence of not fulfilling the terms of the contract is the disobeyer's head to explode from the inside out. Everyone in the room is aware of soul contracts and their danger. Neither Kasumi nor Aki oppose to Shinji signing the contract, meaning that the loser of the duel will be forced to quit as an adventurer, with the loser being decided by knockout or forfeit.

"The conditions are set, you fool, i can't wait to see you bruised to a pulp." Curtis smirks, "Tonight, at Tesmuth's very own coliseum, we'll see you there, now scram."

Shinji nods his head, seemingly unbothered by Curtis's remarks, Kasumi and Aki silently follow him out the room. Aki looks back at the table and sees Selene giving him a wave, to which Aki almost waved back but hesitated and stops himself.

The trio leave the building without saying anything more to the unbeatable five.

"That Selene human….. i'm sure she-"

"She's the same human that approached you yesterday, she was using Masquerade, the same spell i used on us…. she could be a problem." Kasumi interrupts Aki, confirming his suspicions before he could even put two and two together.

…

Coliseum, Tesmuth, Realm of the Humans:

The trio arrive at the coliseum and are greeted with the unbeatable five before them, with Curtis ready to fight and the rest sat in the spectator stands. Aki catches himself glancing over at Selene, who waves at him, but he quickly averts his gaze.

"For your own sake, don't kill him." Kasumi says to Shinji, placing her hand on his shoulder before turning away.

Shinji enters the arena and faces Curtis while Aki and Kasumi sit in the stands, on the opposite side to the crystal plates.

"You finally show your face, ya piece of scum. Let's get this over with already." Curtis says with a cocky smirk, ready to show his strength.

"Shut up." Shinji says, with an unpleasant expression, "You're wasting our time."

In the crowd, Selene blows a whistle to mark the start of the duel, to which both Shinji and Curtis charge towards each other.

Curtis unsheathes his sword and encased it in multiple spells that he doesn't enchant aloud, showing his seriousness, giving the sword a deadly glowing aura.

Elgar, York and Selene are visibly in shock by Curtis's clear murderous intent with this attack, while Ellie sits with her arms crossed, unfazed.

Shinji respond to this by quickly outstretching his right arm and materialises his weapon: Black Viper Scythe. Ignoring the strange magic he has just witnessed, Curtis smirks at the sight of a scythe being Shinji's weapon as he charges forward ready to swing his sword.

"HYAA!" Curtis swiftly swings his sword at shinji's neck in a full throttle attack, in which to his surprise, Shinji blocks it with the handle of his scythe that is now radiating in a dark purple aura.

"Trying to kill me, Captain?" Shinji smugly asks, whilst still blocking the attack.

"Tch, that's a strong weapon you conjured up, ya freak." Curtis stubbornly responds, before bouncing backwards.

"What do you even gain from this?" Shinji questions Curtis's aim.

"I get to crush an overconfident, cheating WEAKLING like yourself!" Curtis responds, already charging with a reformed strategy.

"Weakling…. now where have i heard that from?" Shinji asks himself rhetorically, with his face dropping after hearing that word. Being called weakling yet again after what he went through in limbo caused his resolve to break.

Shinji just stands there as Curtis lands a deep slash, severing his right arm. As the blood pours and the arm and scythe lay on the floor, Shinji slowly starts regenerating.

"Could a weakling do this?" Ignoring the pain to the best of his ability, Shinji holds his regenerating arm out towards Curtis, who is shocked by the lack of reaction.

Curtis slashes the air to get the blood off of his sword and then looks at Shinji, still with confidence when he speaks. "Who the fuck cares-"

Before he can finish, Shinji abruptly releases his full demon aura, showing his A Class strength which is significantly stronger than Curtis's.

Kasumi and Aki lean forward in shock at Shinji's seemingly deliberate indiscretion. "What the FUCK is he doing!?" Aki says, covering his eyes in annoyance.

"So much for staying in disguise…" Kasumi mutters, glancing over at the horrified humans.

Curtis freezes for a moment, unable to comprehend the sudden shift. "S-So that's how you did it, huh? Y-You're a fucking monster that's how you cheated!" Curtis try's to rationalise the situation, "I-In that case, i'll rid the world of one of its mistakes and-"

Curtis is cut off again, this time by an immense aura, many-a-times greater than that of Shinji, silently and suddenly landing in the middle of the arena. As the small dust cloud disperses, the source of the aura is revealed.

"I often commend righteous minds like you, Captain Curtis, however, your presence won't be necessary any longer" Lady Gina, Celestial of Selflessness says with a smile, making an unannounced appearance. Gina looks at the now defensive Shinji, "Found you."