$1 Billion Dollar Bounty

Vine-root was making large vines spread throughout the entire area, and Akira was running to them, grabbing the middle of them, and ripping them apart.

'If these go any further, they'll destroy something. But If I keep destroying these vines, they will regrow!'

Akira ran backwards, outrunning the veins, and he started dashing side to side, creating tall walls of wrap, stopping the vines from going forward.

"I'm so smart!" Akira smiled.

The vines started to grow over the wall, trying to go over them.

Akira said, "I'm so dumb."

Akira started to run upwards on the wrap wall, going at light speed.

Akira jumped high above the wall, and he met up with the other vines.

King Vine-root yelled, "No matter what you do, you cannot stop me!"

Akira replied, "What destroyed you last time? Since there were a bunch of dead vines and stuff around?"

"Huh?! Why would I tell you that? All you need to know is that you've awakened me with the strong power within you, in which my vines react to power, which jump started my life back! That's why I'm able to regenerate and get stronger! Thanks to your energy and aura!"

"I need to know so I can beat you properly, duhhhh. And that's kinda cheating!"

"I-IT'S NOT CHEATING! Just die already! You're getting on my nerves!"

"You sound like everyone else!"

King Vine-root ran over to Akira, with tons of vines flowing out of him.

He threw a barrage of spear-like vines from his chest, and they spat out like bullets, he even made some vines spiral out of the ground like a beanstalk.

Akira dodged everything, jumping from vine to vine. He was even running like a dog down a giant vine, and vine thorns were shooting out of all the vines, heading towards Akira.

'Thorns..obviously. Gotta figure out a way to take down this vine monster.'

Akira started to dodge the thorns, even catching them with his hands, flipping high in the air while dodging more vines and thorns, and he slung the thorns at Vine-root.

The thorns got into Vine-root's eyes, and he screeched, "Ow! W-what the fuck?!"

Large vines were swarming all over the place, with Licht, the farmer, Remy, and Zenyu still watching.

Akira jumped on top of some more vines, and Vine-root shot more thorn filled vines at Akira. They came from other vines, from the ground, and from Vine-roots mouth.

Akira ran forward, and he jumped again, and he created two giant wrap drills in both hands. He dashed from the vines again, swinging his wrap drills all over the place, shredding the vines into pieces. More vines surrounded him, but Akira was shredding them apart.

Vine-root said, "It's useless! The more you fight, the more one sided it gets! What part of that are you not getting?!"

Akira thought, 'The more I fight, the more time I can have to slow this monster down before he spreads his vines all over the place. I need to think quickly. What about my third eye..? No..I still don't really know how it works…OH! I remember..during the fight with the Yōkai..he needed enough negative energy to bring out my Third Eye. Negative energy..from myself it seems. Only way for that to happen is if I get really really pissed or if I force negative energy to build within myself and grasp it within myself. That must be what happened in class…I felt something sinister within me when he was pestering me, even though I wasn't really mad. It did feel like I grabbed hold of some dark energy. If I knew how to master bringing it out without getting headaches, I would spam that shit allllll day on bad guys! It's so cool! So using my Third Eye is out the window.'

Akira dodged more vines, grabbing them in mid air, darting off the air diagonally, spinning them up high, and slamming them on Vine-root, making him crash into the ground with a loud thud.

Akira thought, 'Vines..I learned about them in school. One way to destroy vines is with some technical spray or something like that. I don't remember the exact name. But manually destroying it…is with fire. That's it! Haha, I'm so smart! Wait, I might cause a large fire right after, and I would have to hustle to take down the flames.'

Akira looked up, and saw the water tower, thinking, 'That's it! I can use that to put the fire out!'

A giant vine smashed near Akira, and Akira jumped up above it to avoid it.

Vine-root mocked, "Hoh? Getting distracted in the middle of a fight? Not so wise are you?"

Akira dashed up to Vine-roots face at light speed, smiled, and punched him in the face, blasting a large hole in it; his strong punch almost caused a typhoon.

Vine-root fell down, and his face and parts of his vine head were growing back.

Akira was running past him, saying with a cheesy grin, "Oi! I know how to beat you! It's with fire! I'm smart, aren't I?!"

King Vine-root got nervous, waving his hands, "W-W-Wait wait wait wait, hold on we can talk about this, I'll do whether you w-want! Please!"

"Nooooope! Hahahaha!"

"…S…Science nerd!!!"

He sent enormous vines towards Akira, with thorns shooting all over the place.

Akira dodged them without even looking back at them, and he did a front flip, turned around in mid air, and punched the ground hard.

A giant piece of the ground blasted upwards with large dust and wind clouds, and some other parts of the ground got cracked apart as well.

King Vine-root said, "What the hell?!"

Akira ran towards a tree, and he snatched two thick branches off it.

Akira turned around, and he put the two branches together, and he started rubbing them against each other fast.

Fire brimmed from the branches, and Akira thought, 'If I run too fast, the fire will blow out. Gotta keep my speed to a minimum.'

Akira allowed Vine-root to charge towards him, and Vine-root said, "Blow that fire out, now! I'll be nice! I promise!"

Akira replied, "Really? You'll be nice?!"

"Y-Yes! I'll fight for Justice and all that shit!"

"Mm. Sounds good to me!"

Akira put the fire out by putting his hand on top of it, and King Vine-root sighed, "Phew, that was-."

Akira smiled again, scratching the two branches against each other again, and fire came back.

King Vine-root yelled, "Dammit! I said I'll be nice!"

Akira said, "I can be dumb sometimes, but this isn't one of those times, monster thing! HAHA!"

Vine-root realized he couldn't really run away, so he shot pieces of his large vines at Akira, so the fire wouldn't spread to his main body.

Akira made wraps come from his arms, and he created a surfboard made out of wraps.

"I ALWAYS wanted to do this! Haha!"

Akira ran with the surfboard, and he leaped up, and he stood on the surfboard, surfing along the giant flowing vines like he was surfing on waters.

A giant vine was flinging in the air, and giant thorns shot out from it. Akira put his right hand, and rated a wrap shield, and it stopped the thorns; in his other hand, he was holding the two branches that were on fire.

Vine-root exclaimed, "What is this witchcraft you are doing?!"

Akira kept surfing, saying, "Witchcraft?! It's just wraps. Not like gauze or anything. I got this idea of a surfboard from reading a slice of life manga and the characters met a surfer dude and-!"

"I don't care! I don't care! I don't care! Drown in the vines!"

Over on the side, Licht stood up, saying to the farmer, "This is the craziest thing I've seen all day. Akira really is creative!! Haha! A damn surfboard?! He's like me!"

The farmer responded, "Kid's got the right idea with the fire."

On the other side, Zenyu was cheering Akira on, "Go! Go! Kick his vine shaped butt!"

Remy chuckeld, "Hmph. I expected much from Akira, but not this much."

Akira flew upwards with his surfboard into the air, and Vine-root shot more thorns at him.

Akira pointed his wrap surfboard at the thorns, and he started spinning, allowing the bottom of the surfboard to block the thorns.

Vine-root tried to run backwards, but Akira exclaimed, "Oh no you don't!"

Akira jumped off the surfboard, and he made wraps come from his stomach, and they wrapped around Vine-roots body, and trapped him.

"No! No!"

Akira was above Vine-root, and he created a large funnel container with his wraps, and he put the two fire branches inside. Akira blew the bottom of the wrap funnel container as hard as he could, and fire blasted from he container, and it started to connect with Vine-root.

"AGGHH! AGHHHHH! Damn you!!!! No!"

Fire raced all through Vine-roots body, burning him down. Fire spreaded all through the large vines, burning those down as well.

Akira thought, 'Now to put the fire out while the monster is dying!'

Akira didn't hesitate to leap off the air multiple times, he moved to the water tower. He started to climb on the top of it, and he smashed his fist through it, and he ripped a giant hole from the top. Akira then jumped off of it, and kicked the entire water tower down, with water splashing all over the place.

The water was suppressing the fire, and Vine-root and all of his vines were all dissolving within the fire.

Seconds went by, and the fire was being suppressed still.

(2 minutes later)

Akira was standing in the middle of the field, filled with puddles, burnt vines, and ash.

Akira was back to his normal appearance, and he was putting his glasses back on.

Akira looked around him, saying, "Awesomeeeee!"

Licht and the farmer were walking to Akira.

Licht was clapping, "Well done, well done, Akira."

Akira looked at Licht, grinning, "Thank you!"

Akira then looked at the farmer, apologizing, "I'm so so so sorry! I kinda destroyed your yard! Please forgive me!"

The farmer walked up to Akira, and put his hand on his shoulder, saying, "Don't apologize, you did a fine job. Thank you very much, Third Eye Man."

"You KNOW ME?!!!"

"Quite a few people do actually, haha."

Akira celebrated, "YES! YES! YES!"

Licht said to the farmer, "The Hero Syndicate will be paying for the damages done, since this involved a vine…monster. Everything will be reimbursed. I've let the Syndicate know everything that happened here."

Akira dashed up to Licht with a smile, saying, "THE SYNDICATE KNOWS?! ARE THEY PROUD OF ME?!"

Licht pushed Akira slowly, "Uhhhh, yesss?"

"WOOHOO!"

The farmer bowed to Licht, "I'm forever grateful for all you heroes."

Licht said arrogantly, "Well, you know, I AM the best. The reason I'm not ranked number one like Gunjo is because I can get lazy sometimes."

"Hoh? Really?"

"Huh? What? Why'd you say it like that? YA' DOUBTIN' MY SKILLS?!"

"No, no, no."

"Good!"

Running towards all three of them, came Zenyu and Remy.

Zenyu exclaimed with a wave, "Akira!"

Akira turned around, and Zenyu and Remy were already standing in front of him.

Akira gasped a little bit, saying, "Zenyu! And Remy! It's Remy!"

Remy put Akira in a headlock, saying, "I have no doubts that you will join our main squad, sir Akira, AKA Third Eye Man! Once you do, I'll make you the strongest!"

Akira responded, "I-I'm looking forward to it! Really! And..you smell good."

Remy blushed, and she said, "W-Well! I don't want to smell disturbing after training, so I always smell good! Haha!"

Zenyu begged Akira, "Akira, you do NOT want to train with her! As your friend, I'm telling you the greatest truth of all!"

Remy replied, "Huh?! You tryna discourage him???!! Hahhhhh?!"

Remy put Zenyu in a headlock, saying, "This will teach you!"

Zenyu responded, "Ow! That hurts!"

"Tooo bad!"

Zenyu then looked at Akira, and said, "You did great!"

Akira answered, "Thanks!"

"Were you nervous?!"

"Mmmm, kinda. I was worried about the fire!"

"Oo I loved that part!"

"Thanks!"

Akira looked at Licht, and asked, "Oi! Uncle Licht..did I pass? I know I caused a lot of damage..but I didn't have a choice..I didn't mean to cause so much."

Licht laughed, "HAHAHAHA! Look at you trying to be HUMBLE! Alright, yeah you passed."

Akira clenched his fists with a grin, "Yes!"

Zenyu congratulated him, "Congrats!"

Remy said, "Ha! Expected from my future disciple!"

(Hours later)

(Night time)

[Shin's guild mansion]

[Training room]

The training room had many weight sets, a giant ring in the middle, and on the other side there was a large white room where the squad could work on their powers.

In the middle of the ring, stood Red and Tengen, and they were both wearing headgear and boxing gloves.

Red was throwing punches over and over, with Tengen blocking them without attacking.

Red said, "How DARE you say one of my harem girls hates me!"

Tengen replied, "Cause they do, dumbass! One of them stares at me more than they stare at your ninja looking ass!"

"FOUL! I'm prettier than you! Everyone wants to look like me!"

"Do you really take pride as a man when saying that?! Damn sissy!"

"At least I have a harem! I'm popular with the ladies! They all love me!

"I have a harem!"

"Harem of what? Anger?"

"No!"

"The what?!"

"Issues!"

Tengen punched Red in the stomach and face, then threw another punch, but Red blocked it and hit Tengen in the ribs.

Tengen darted to the right and punched Red in the face again, and Red punched Tengen in the face. They both punched each other back and forth, with blood blasting out each of their mouths.

This went on for a minute straight, until they both punched each other in the face at the same time.

They both fell down, breathing hard.

They both took off their headgear, and Tengen said, "I needed that."

Red responded, "You looked down and out. Ever since you mentioned that new student in your class."

"Yeah, her ass."

Tengen sat up, continuing, "I remember her. I do. I really fucking do. I remember how Naomi was a girl I used to bully, but then we ended up being friends. She always looked tired in class, she always looked at me..I thought she wanted to start trouble. I remember tormenting her with words everyday, I begged her to speak, but she didn't."

"You remember how you two became friends?"

"We were fucking kids, I don't remember that shit. There's only, like, a few things I do remember. I remember me and her being at a populated place, people were bumping into us..and next thing you know..they all were going crazy and offing themselves."

"For real? Seriously?"

"I'm serious. It's something up with Naomi. Shin felt something within her, something I'm not allowed to investigate in school."

"Well then, we gotta find her. And have you go inside her body with your astral projection and take out whatever is up with her."

"Wish it was that damn easy. Something that is strong within her, that causes people to kill themselves with just a touch..is fairly strong, maybe even stronger than me. Naomi doesn't speak either, so I wanna know what the deal is with that, because I remember her ass talking to herself at times when she was alone."

"Are you certain that she was the cause of the deaths of the people you mentioned?"

"I'm 100% positive she had something to do with it. And last night, more people offed themselves, and there were over a dozen people."

"I see. Just a quick question."

"What?"

"Is she pretty?"

"DUDE!"

"What does she look like?"

"REALLY?!"

"It's just a question. I can't ask questions?"

"NOT THOSE KIND! THE HELL?!"

"Well, EXCUSE ME for being interested in the reason why you've been acting crazy."

"Tch. Whatever. I'm outta here. I need to take a walk or some shit."

Tengen stood up, and started walking out of the ring.

Red said, "We should try and find her out of school. Since we can't do anything inside the schools."

Tengen stopped walking, "Smartest thing you've said all day. Maybe even your whole pathetic life."

"Ruthless towards me I see."

"We do need to find her out of school, and deal with her. But we need to do it without making it look like we're stalking her."

"Just talk to her during school. Interrogate her."

"I thought about it. But I was too…shocked to even say more than five words to her. I thought I'd never see her again. It threw me off since she got into my class. I'll talk to her tomorrow during lunch, she sits in class the whole time staring at nothing."

"I love weird girls."

"RED!"

[Naomi's house]

[Naomi's room]

Naomi was pacing around the room, holding onto things, and falling against the wall.

She had tears in her eyes, as shadow figures with upside down bright smiles were crawling all over the room like spiders, the sound of their feet tapping made Naomi even more scared.

Naomi was running away from them in her room, she couldn't leave through the front door or the window, because the figures would be blocking it.

Naomi cried, "Please leave me alone! Stop!"

Naomi fell to the floor, and she started crawling to the wall.

Naomi screamed, "Somebody help me!"

The figures had caught onto Naomi's ankles, and they started dragging her back.

Naomi kept screaming, and when she turned around to look at the figures dragging her, there was a pile of fingers with their hands out and bodies vibrating, saying, "Naaaaaaoooooooomi…NAOMI!"

Naomi screamed as loud as she could, with her eyes going pitch black, and her hair flowing upward, and wind began to blast around the room, and the figures disappeared.

Naomi crawled back towards the wall, holding her heart, breathing heavily, with her legs shaking.

"Not again..not again..not again.."

Outside of her door, stood her Aunt and Uncle, listening in.

They said:

"She's having those hallucinations again."

"Don't step too close to the door, dear, you might get pulled in."

"Leave her in there."

"Should we leave her home tomorrow?"

"We absolutely cannot. We don't want anything cursing this house. We were already generous enough to take her in after her parents death."

They were already walking away from the door, and Naomi stood up off the floor. Naomi started to walk to her dresser, breathing heavily.

She picked up a picture of her with her parents. She was standing between her parents as a child, with her mom and dad standing side by side smiling.

Naomi said, "I'm trying to hold on..mom..dad. I'm doing everything I can to hold on..but I don't know how long I can go..forgive me..I will have help…from Akira with the Third Eye, Tengen with the spirit, Red and his sword, and Shin's darkness...hopefully they help me..I'm pathetic alone.."

Naomi sat up, thinking, 'I've studied them..all four of them. All of their powers hold a purpose for my problem..they can help me. If they can't..then no one can…'

[Akira's house]

[Training room]

Akira was doing fast push-ups in the break room, doing them with weights on his back. Over on the side, his phone was sitting out, and it was showing the hero website.

There was a headline that said: "Akira, also known as Third Eye Man, has saved a farmer after defeating a giant vine monster! Also saving the land by putting out the fire! He's climbed up the four ranks!"

That gave Akira motivation, heavy metal music played in the background, sweat ran down Akira's head, and his body ached, but he kept going.

Yuu and Yamato were looking into the room, holding onto each other, grinning.

Akira was jogging around the training room while holding two weights on both hands. He was tired as hell, and he fell.

As he fell, he grunted in pain, but he slowly stood back up while gritting his teeth, and he kept running laps.

Seconds later, Akira was punching a punching bag. His knuckles bled because of how fragile his body was, his fists pounded on the bag hard, going back and forth with fists.

'I climbed four ranks…! It's true that I'll get stronger both in power and without my powers if I train, if I become the strongest, I'll beat everyone! With my Third Eye I was said to be unstoppable, I want that to be the case with my normal self! Mom and Dad are staring the hell outta me..acting like I can't see them.'

Seconds later, Akira was holding a wooden sword, with Yuu and Yamato attacking him with wooden swords.

Akira was trying his hardest to dodge the attacks, but he kept getting hit.

Yuu said, "We won't go easy on you. Learning how to fight and defend with a weapon will improve your skill without a weapon, easing your awareness. Me and your father know this better than anyone."

Yamato swung at Akira, saying, "With your powers, you could easily overpower us in a millisecond. You want that to be the case without your powers. Remember: the more you train without your powers, the stronger you'll be without your powers, and the stronger you'll become while using your powers."

Akira replied, "Yes!"

"And then..you should know situations like this could happen.."

"Huh?"

Yuu and Yamato jumped backwards, and rifles digitally formed in their hands because of the advanced training room.

Yuu and Yamato started shooting real bullets at Akira.

Akira made his wraps form around his body with his appearance changing, and he started destroying the bullets. Akira was destroying the bullets with only his first finger from both hands. His hands were moving faster than the bullets, and he dashed forward past his parents at breakneck speed, and Yuu and Yamato were bound by wraps.

Yuu said, "Nice!"

Yamato added, "You acted quickly, that was to show you how quickly you need to suit up, for a situation could happen out of nowhere in the blink of an eye."

Akira looked at them, and nodded, "I'm getting stronger, right?! I'm good, aren't I?!"

Yuu and Yamato chuckled, "Very. NOW LET US THE HELL OUTTA HERE!"

(Next morning)

(4:00 AM)

[Unknown location]

The sky was dark grayish brown, and there was a large gray abandoned and worn out building in the middle of nowhere, sitting on top of some giant rocks, and there were some puddles around, but the ground with mostly large brown rocks, that's how it was with the entire area.

Akira was standing in the middle of the abandoned building, wearing heavy armor, and Licht putting the armor on him.

Akira rambled on with a smile, "I trained so hard last night, my knuckles were bleeding and my body hurt so bad! I felt like Rocky! Metal music played in the background, and I also trained with mom and dad! I obliterated them with my powers, but they kicked my ass when I wasn't using them. Say, this is the last test, right? You never told me what we were doing for it. Why are we like, allllll the way out here?"

Licht looked at Akira, grinned, and said, "We've been on quite a journey. Ya know, you've found me within a crowd of rioters, you got chased by cops and heroes and celebrities while my dog was trying to kill you, you destroyed a giant vine monster that literally came from the spawns of 'Outta fucking nowhere land'. And now..is the last test. You've worked hard to get to this point, and to be honest, if you would've failed, I wouldn't have given you another chance. Just saying. I didn't think you'd get this far to be honest, but you're serious about this."

"Yeah….I am."

"This is your final test. And this time, Kaede and Toshin are watching this test along with me."

"Two of the leaders of the Hero Syndicate are watching me?! Awesome! I'll do my best! So what are we doing for the final test?"

"I put a 1 billion dollar bounty on your head on a hitman website on the dark web, and they all should be here any minute to try and kill you."

Akira had a stuck smile, and he froze in place.

Licht waved his hand in front of Akira's face, "Yoooo. Akira? Akira? Akira? Akira?"

Akira yelled, "What?!!"

"That's the reaction I was expecting."

"WHAT KIND OF TEST IS THIS?! I WON'T LAST FOUR MINUTES! DO YOU HATE ME THAT MUCH?!"

"I know I kinda went ghost on the family for a long time because of things I was trying to handle, but I don't hate any of you. I hate saying I love people, but you know I care about you all. I want you to succeed Akira, I want Shin to succeed. It's my way of making up to you guys for me going M.I.A. You can do this. There's weapons all around this building, along with traps you have to set up. This armor on you was made with the same material that your mother and father use for their battle suits. But it can wear off if it takes a certain amount of damage. The suit will detect if you use your powers, and it will shock you. Until all of the entire armor is blown completely off with no lingering pieces, then you can go all out with your powers."

"…I'm scared, Uncle Licht. Do I really have to do this?"

"Shin wanted me to go hard on you. I trained your brother a few times, I went hard on him too, but never this hard. There are hero kids the same age as you that go through this everyday by themselves. If you want to step into the land of heroes, you gotta be ready to face unlimited obstacles. Are you gonna run and abandon the test, or are you gonna fight and win? The Hero Syndicate doesn't have time for quitters."

Akira looked down at the floor, clenching his fists.

'It's true. I've come quite a ways to this point. And I know for a fact that this isn't the finish line. I didn't train as hard as I did last night for nothing, I don't wanna be a hero for nothing. I won't be able to accomplish my goals if I run.'

Akira said, "I'll do this…but after…you have to tell me what happened to you when you went M.I.A."

"Sure thing."

Licht turned around and started walking away, and Akira watched him.

Licht stopped, turned around, and said, "Oh, and one more thing."

Akira replied, "Hm?"

"Go all out."

"Got it!"

Licht left the building, and Akira looked around him, seeing he was surrounded by weapons and bombs and other types of weapons, there were weapons and traps in every floor of the building.

Akira started to move quickly to what he wanted to use, thinking, 'Gotta be quick! Super duper quick! Gotta choose! Gotta pick!'

Miles away, coming from all directions around the building Akira was in, were over 100 skilled hitmen with powers and without powers, and they were saying:

"Oh yeah! I can't wait to claim this bounty!"

"Hell no! I'm claiming it! I'll kill you!"

There was one boy among them, and he had a bandage over his left eye and a bandage around his forehead like a headband, had fully white eyes, white wavy hair, and his hair had two white spiky buns in the back. He had a huge black sword on his back, and he was running really fast. His name was Katchi.

Katchi said to the hit-men, "It is wise that we don't kill each other off before we arrive at our target's position. Akira is not to be underestimated. It'll probably take all of us to annihilate him. It's all about who claims the body after he is killed. If any of you fight among each other, I'll kill you myself. If you're busy fighting those who aren't your targets, you're wasting time on your real target who could already be dead and claimed. Fools."

One hitman said, "Hah?! I run solo! I don't take orders from no brat!"

That hitman tried to hit Katchi, but in the blink of an eye, the hit man's chest had a huge hole blasted in it, and the tip of Katchi's sword had blood on it. The hitman fell down dead, and the other hit-men jumped over him.

They'll be arriving at Akira's building in less than 10 minutes, and Akira was still preparing for the invasion.