The Divine Core

"FRESHMAN VS SOPHOMORE(6): DEFYING FATE"

"Chiko!" Kai, whose mind wasn't at peace, ran off to be with his friend.

"Hey, wait up! You know you haven't fully recovered yet!" Kota yelled out, reminding him that he is still in the process of recovery.

"Don't bother, let him go," Haku advised with a sigh.

"Hmm..."

As he ran into the tunnel leading to the exit of the battlefield, he accidentally bumped into a fellow Daemon.

"Sorry! In a hurry right now," he yelled, apologizing without even needing to clash eyes with the latter.

'That presence…' the Daemon turned to see not even a trace of Kai. "I guess I have to wait a little longer to get to play with you, chosen one," he soliloquized, revealing himself to be Akuma.

"Keep on playing hard to get. It wouldn't be long till we finally play a game," he grinned.

>

••• { } •••

Chiko was stuck in an endless abyss of his dark memories. He began to recollect the past.

'I'm sorry, master. I failed you,' Chiko thought, trapped in a trance of his delusions.

Mentally scarred from the huge loss he suffered, he grieved in the shadows of his imagination.

'Aeon,' he scoffed. 'I guess he was right,' he confessed as he remembered the day he and Kai confronted each other before battle.

'Aeon or not. It's just a rank. Prove to me that you are worth that rank,' he remembered vividly.

'A rank doesn't make a Daemon,' he philosophized.

'A Daemon makes his rank,' he continued.

'I guess I'm a fool for thinking that I could ever take on an Aeon head on,' he chuckled as he sank into the shadow's endless ocean. 'I'm no Kenji. I'm just a Daemon realized from the feeling of hate,' he concluded, willingly allowing himself to drown.

But, just as his body was about to be submerged into the darkness, a hand hindered his will.

'Don't you dare call yourself a fool, dear Chiko,' his master rescued as his calm persona removed all forms of worries from his mind. 'You've fought the good fight, but you're just getting started, young one.

'Will you continue to give up on life when it hasn't given up on you?'

Tears slowly dripped from his eyes. With a reaffirmed faith, his master yanked him up to his feet, restoring him to reality.

••• { } •••

"Chiko!" He heard a voice call out his name as slowly opened his eyes. "He's opening his eyes! Nurse! Nurse!"

A female Daemon slowly opened the door to the room in response to the call.

"May I help you?" She said, visibly stressed off.

"The f**k do you mean, 'may I help you?' Get your a*s over here and do your job!" He growled, provoked, not caring about her condition as she immediately began to inspect the awakening Daemon.

"You okay, buddy?" Kai asked, smiling.

"I am now," he affirmed.

>

"The show must go on. With a tie and a win for the Freshman, let the third bout begin!" Satoru announced, igniting the excitement of the audience.

"So tell me, Nakamura," he invited. "With your students at the losing end after the scandalous decision made by Akuma, do you still have faith in your students' worth?"

"This was just to add salt to the wounded pride of the Aeon in Chiko," he replied, intending to spite Shujin. "I am more than confident that my students would compensate on his behalf," he concluded.

"Yessiree!" He exclaimed. "Now that's what I love to hear! This one's gonna be interesting. At the third bout of this year's tournament, the Disaster Core faces the Core of Fate! Hikari vs Yami's up next." He announced.

As the crowd roared, the two Daemons entered the battlefield, their gazes locked on one another.

Hikari, her muscles taut and poised to strike, held the face of a predator ready to claim its prey.

In contrast, Yami, agile and balanced, had the look of a cunning fox, confident that he was one step ahead of his adversary.

Their stances alone spoke volumes, a tale of raw power and devious intelligence. The sound of the announcer pierced through the air, signaling the start of the battle.

Hikari wasted no time in landing the first attack, unleashing a dust storm in the surrounding area to conceal her presence away from her opponent.

"Before we truly begin, let's establish one fact," he proposed, gently surveying the area to detect her aura.

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" She asked, rather curiously.

"This is a battle, Hikari. I'll be no gentleman in handling you squarely," he declared, smirking tenaciously.

Yami scanned the area, searching for any sign of Hikari. He knew that she was out there, waiting to strike. It was a classic move, using a dust storm to conceal one's presence was quite basic for a Daemon who was blessed with such power.

But Yami was not one to be taken in by such a simple trick. He closed his eyes, concentrating on his other senses to find his opponent.

Hikari moved through the dust, her movements fluid and silent. She could sense Yami's presence, like a predator stalking its prey. She knew he was searching for her, but she would not make it easy. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on her target.

Yami stood before her, his back turned. Yami's senses were on high alert. He could feel the dust swirling around him, stinging his eyes and nose. She knew this was her chance.

She lunged forward, causing her to temporarily float whilst releasing a heat burst that burnt out the dust, which was quickly followed by a rapidly spread wildfire and to make a statement, a final outburst of volcanic flames.

The audience tried to keep up with all the successive attacks smartly planted out by Hikari as it aroused their excitement.

However, the attack scheme came to an end as Hikari, alongside all the attacks, halted in place to the shock of the Daemons.

"That was a good try, Hikari," he said, his senses alert and focused. "But, cheap tricks don't work on me," he grinned.

"Amazing display of power from Hikari! The carefully planned ambush was evaded by her counterpart!" Satoru announced.

Yami stood before Hikari, his face a mask of concentration. "Do you believe in fate, Hikari?" he asked, his voice calm and steady, casually walking out of the predicament. "I believe in probability. I believe in the laws of cause and effect, in the natural order of things. What you call fate is simply a chain of events, each leading to the next, and I control it," he concluded, smirking at his work.

Hikari's eyes widened, surprised by Yami's words. "So you don't believe in anything outside of the laws of physics, huh? No such thing as luck, or destiny?" she asked, a hint of doubt in her voice. "Hate to break it to ya, buddy, but the moment you release me, I'm gonna show you how possible it is to break the laws of physics," she declared.

"Oh? Is that so? Show me then," he challenged, releasing the technique.

Half a second after releasing the technique, the wildfire she had created swiftly engulfed a portion of the field. She merged it with the volcanic flames, sweeping towards her opponent. With a graceful landing, she continued applying pressure to the flames.

Yami fluidly dodged the incoming attacks and proceeded to redirect the flames back to her, utterly shocking his opponent.

She parted the flames and simultaneously unleashed a massively concentrated tornado towards her opponent at insane speed.

He smirked, dashing through the hoops of the tornado, closing the distance between them.

>

"I used the same strategy against her before knowing her weakness from classes, but he seems to do it more effortlessly than I did, considering the fact that he knows nothing about her," Kota said.

"He probably figured that out about her even before the battle started," Haku deduced. "He's got insane levels of intellect, you know?"

Yami attempted to crush her head with his arms, but the latter quickly evaded, launching a mini flood straight at him.

He sensed the danger and immediately parted the flood, circling the water around him in a continuous centripetal motion.

He proceeded to a continuous series of water balls towards his opponent. She dodged them all effortlessly answering the attack with a viscously brief blizzard that stunned her opponent.

"Got you now," she smirked.

"You wish," he scoffed.

Hikari stomped the ground, forcibly creating an earthquake that had its target set to Yami.

He flipped, temporarily levitating himself in the air, avoiding the chaos below.

'No way I'm letting you get away,' she thought, creating a volcanic eruption from the quaked earth that sent its molten magma straight to the unprotected body of her opponent.

Once again, Yami divided the incoming lava, redirecting it to his opponent.

Shocked at his pesky resilience, she managed to successfully dodge the danger. The two Daemons paused for a second face off.

"I told you, fellow Daemon. You can't defy what I control," he affirmed.

'This is ridiculous! It's like I'm giving him more ammo! I'm losing ground. I have to find a way to turn this around. Can I really do it?' The endless thoughts of wavered confidence enveloped Hikari's mind.

••• ® •••

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Take a deep breath and go beyond your comfort zone. Set sail and chart your own course for a Storm is before you. This is the perfect opportunity to test your mettle. Shirk not from the challenge.

••• ® •••