The Divine Core

"FRESHMAN VS SOPHOMORE(5): THE MALEVOLENT SOUND(2)"

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"When we hit our lowest points, we are open to the greatest change."

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Born into the great Raijin clan, I was considered a failure—an unfortunate mistake the gods had gifted, with an ability completely divergent from the talents of our forefathers.

I was ridiculed and spat on by my own clan, a disgrace to them and my own family. All I could do was hear at incredibly high frequencies, devoid of any combat abilities. Cast out at the tender age of five, I was left to survive in the cruel world, a world that seemed to wish for my demise.

Days turned into nights as humans ignored my presence in the streets. I could read their thoughts, the waves of sound they emitted revealing their disdain. They shoved me around, treating me as if I were invisible, hurrying on to their place of work.

They littered all over me, so much that trash became my refuge, a makeshift blanket from the discarded waste. Each night, I cursed the world and questioned the purpose of Daemons protecting such wicked beings.

‘Why do Daemons have to protect these wicked beings anyway?’ I'd constantly ask myself, having faith that I would one day make them all rue the day.

Built with the resilience of a Daemon, however, I could survive the pain. I would walk down ally after ally scraping off the garbage from available dumpsters. As I took a bite from each rotten meal, I'd curse the world out loud.

"Humans… Daemons… you all will regret the day you deserted me," I'd exclaim into the dark, foggy night.

"They sure will, kid. They sure will," a stranger's voice would eventually pierce the silence, interrupting my thoughts. A man, enigmatic in presence, approached me, stopping me from consuming any more of the dumpster's offerings.

"What kind of world do we live in? Humans and Daemons are constantly in search of crazy potential in people, yet they don't know when the universe has delivered one to them on a platter of gold," he philosophized.

"Who are you?" I asked, my guard up. "And how do you know about Daemons? Are you one?"

The man's aura was peculiar, the vibes he gave off wasn’t quite human-like, though he resembled one.

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not," he replied cryptically, drawing me into conversation. "But I know you are one, Chiko of the Raijin Clan."

His knowledge of my origins startled me. "How do you know who I am? You don’t look like one of them."

"Yes, yes. I indeed am not of your kind. Let's just say that I've got good eyes," he said with a smile, weaving an air of mystery.

"Chiko, you want to prove your worth to the world, don't you?" he asked.

"Yeah…"

"Great! What if I help you?" he proposed.

"How are you gonna do that?" I inquired cautiously.

"You were disgraced, cast away from you, sent into the shadows with no possible way of getting back up. You lost all faith in the world and in yourself as a fallen Daemon, but you kept on living after every hardship you faced.”

"'The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.' Let that hatred for the world purify into an undying passion that will become the fuel that generates an unbendable will to the path of becoming the greatest Daemon of your kind. Are you ready, Chiko? Ready to take control over your destiny?"

There was something about him that sparked a new flame of hope and power within me. I could only make a vague image of him due to the nature of the night, but his words were a breath of fresh air.

"If that's what it takes, then I'm ready," I resolved.

"If that’s your final answer, then you just have to get up…"

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"Get up, Chiko!" cried Kai, his voice echoing through the arena. Tears mixed with his desperate pleas. "There's no time to rest now! The battle's not over yet, so don’t you dare give in! Do you hear me, Chiko?! Get up!"

Chiko, caught between consciousness and oblivion, while still partially unconscious, registered Kai's voice as his words, "Get up," reverberated like a lifeline.

'Kai?' his subconscious questioned. 'You're awake?' he reasoned. 'That's right… If I'm badly hurt… who'd be there to take care of Kai? Kota's… gonna get exhausted soon. Who's gonna be there for Kai if I'm hurt?' he thought.

Akuma looked through the roaring crowd to see the distinguished voice who called out Chiko. Upon seeing it was Kai, he smiled all the more.

'Oh? The Chosen Daemon. I was wondering where you've been.' he thought, chuckling. 'Let's be friends, shall we?' he concluded, laughing.

Suddenly, Akuma noticed a change in core energy flow in Chiko and this strangely began to amuse him.

"I see it's not over yet. How nauseating. Oh well… do your best, will you, Chiko?" He encouraged, smiling.

Chiko, in his delusional state, closed his eyes. The whole crowd was silent, but Kai soon broke the silence.

"Chiko!" He screamed even louder than before. "Are you gonna let this creep take you down? To think that this is what has become of the Sound Core, ay? Losing to me would have been more befitting. More humbling! Is this what you're made of? All you got, ay Chiko?! Open your goddamn eyes and kick some real s**t out of that psychotic butt!" He rallied.

A gigantic wave burst open from the depths of Chiko's core. In epic fashion, Chiko's eyes opened bright as it clearly showed nothing but rage.

The Crowd roared as Chiko's wave of energy slowly raised him up from the ground. Kai chuckled as Chiko smiled at the wonderful sight.

“Thanks, Kai," he said as he awakened from his trance. "Ain't no way that I'm losing to this Daemon."

"I believe this is going longer than expected," he cut in whilst levitating on air, approaching an awakened Chiko head on. "It's about time we ended this, am I right, dear Chiko?" He asked, smiling.

"Couldn't agree more. It ends now," he professed.

"Oh my, oh my," he exclaimed, holding his jaw. "I guess playtime's over. How sad," he established, wearing a sad face. "Oh well…"

'Here it comes,' Chiko thought, who took in a lot of air as soon as he saw a quick expression change from his opponent.

"Burst...open…"

The words of Akuma caused a great vibration which soon caused an earthquake. The command got to Chiko and a loud bang was heard. The crowd looked closely to see what had occurred. To everyone's surprise, Chiko was in good condition unharmed by the attack.

'Impossible… No, it's not,' he looked in confusion. 'He must have figured me out. Oh Chiko, you really are a b****y b***h,' he thought. "What a pleasant surprise!" He exclaimed.

'Gotcha,' Chiko thought. "Your attacks won't work on me anymore."

"Oh, but it came at a cost, am I right?"

Chiko supposedly ignored and charged towards him.

'A gutsy move you made to ensure my techniques don't work on you,' he began to think. 'You figured out that the attack works if only you hear it, and so you deafen your ears to all incoming sounds to ensure you stay safe from the effects of my technique's power. Truly admirable, dear friend, but…'

Akuma grabbed hold of the attacking hand of Chiko. Chiko produced a shockwave that distracted him long enough to deliver a devastating hurricanrana to Akuma. With no effort, Akuma landed gracefully.

Without a second thought, Chiko punched the ground hard causing the earth to shatter and this interrupted his footing.

'Amazing. Truly amazing. This is a breath of fresh air,' he exclaimed, waltzing through the rumble.

The crowd began to go crazy again in excitement.

"Akuma's technique has no effect on him anymore," Satoru announced. "Chiko completely turned the battle in his favor!"

Akuma jumped into the air and so did Chiko. On air, Chiko rapidly delivered heavy blows upon blows, but Akuma just decided to have fun dodging his attacks.

Chiko levitated directly above Akuma and launched a massive sonic blast straight to the depths of Akuma's skull. This caused him to land hard into the ground. This dust cleared away to see Akuma chilling on the ground.

Visibly enraged, Chiko zoomed forward launching himself right on the opposition. Akuma smartly moved away. Chiko's collision on the ground caused it to explode. Chiko almost immediately rose back up to keep up the pace of the attacks.

'I still haven't figured out why he is able to avoid my attacks,' he thought. 'But he can't block multi-layered attacks dropped on him all at once. This is my chance. Keep up the pressure!'

Chiko trapped Akuma in his solidified sound and simultaneously released a mirage of powerful explosions straight at him. Akuma viciously powered out only to be met with another attack which he barely escaped.

Akuma seemed to be having fun and zoomed at great speed towards Chiko and placed his right palm on the chest of Chiko. Startled, Chiko held his palm and sent massive amounts of sound waves to his system and immediately sent him flying with a concentrated sound beam.

Whilst his opponent was temporarily stunned, Chiko prepared himself for the final attack. He began to accumulate unthinkable amounts of core energy charged sound to create a blast great enough to replicate a bomb. Akuma soon regained himself relatively quickly but was too late to stop the attack.

At great speed, Chiko's sound beam, which was jam-packed with core energy, blasted its way through every thing it passed through and landed a devastating final hit on his opponent; launching him straight to the concrete barricade that separated the audience from the contestants. There was a brief moment of silence.

"He's down!" Satoru yelled, breaking the silence.

Everyone roared at the epic c****x of the battle. Extremely exhausted, Chiko fell from the sky and crashed to the ground.

'It's over…' he thought, panting. 'I did it,' he groaned. 'I can't feel my body…' he lost the energy to process any more thoughts.

"And your winner by…"

"Whoa, whoa…" Akuma rudely interrupted, clearing away all the dust. "Don't count me out just yet, friend."

As the dust began to clear away, Akuma was seen standing with only scuffings on his clothes and dust on his body. This massively shocked Chiko.

'Impossible. What the hell?' he thought as Akuma came up close and then proceeded to squat and pat his head.

"You're incapable of playing more with me, aren't you?" He menacingly asked. "That's sad. We were just getting started, right? Oh well, it was fun while it lasted," he sighed, standing up whilst his opponent groaned in pain.

"I wish there was a way to show you that I had a good time…" he began to think out loud as he stood up. "I got it! Why don't you take the win? Good idea right?" He requested, smiling darkly.

Everyone gasped as they were alarmed by the shocking decision he had made.

"You're happy now right?" He asked. "Well if you're happy, then I am too. After all, what are friends for?" He concluded. 'You've got what you wanted…' he thought; looking in the direction of Kai. 'I've got what I wanted. It's a win for the two of us. Amazing.' he concluded within his twisted mind.

"Until we meet again. See ya," he joyfully announced his goodbye, kissing his forehead.

Akuma deviously walked away and clashed eyes with Kai.

'Let's play, Chosen One. It won't be long til we do,' he thought.

Chiko tried to move but failed greatly to do so as his body had given in.

'No, not like this,' he thought. 'Come back here, you creep. Get the hell back here, you…'

Chiko finally fell unconscious, for his body had reached its physical and mental limit.

"Honoring the words of the supposed victor, Akuma, your winner by submission, your Core of Sound, Chiko!" Satoru announced.

The crowd cheered and chanted the name of Chiko, acknowledging the incredible effort and resilience he displayed in the hard-fought battle. Whilst Akuma walked out of the battlefield to no one's recognition, the medical care took his opponent away to the healing center for immediate treatment.

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"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength."

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