An Assassin's Respite

An Understanding

The next day, everyone wakes up refreshed and energized. The day off really seemed to clear their minds, allowing them to focus on their training and forget about the air of anxiousness they had been wafting in the last couple of weeks. Even the special agents on duty noticed this as the students began to rapidly advance in their training regiments.

Akeno’s headaches eased greatly and she was busy studying in the library. Matt was able to increase the size of select portions of his body although he was still struggling with the speed of activation. Shiba had gotten used to his new speed and Kagura’s control over her winds was much better than when they first arrived. 

Kazuna had begun his training with his fire and wind powers. After seeing how much thought Matt put into what he could do, he knew he couldn’t let his own thoughts hold him back. As he trained, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the first serious training session he had when he inherited his powers. His control was utterly awful. 

“It would be nearly impossible for me to use my fire or wind in a fight. I was only able to use that attack against Ken thanks to me being able to flood all my strength into it along with not having this island increase its strength. It’ll be a while before I’m able to properly use them again,” He noted to himself.

Thankfully, the area that he and Matt were in was perfect for him. There wasn’t anything for him to burn down with his flames. 

“Well, the best way to practice is through doing.” He says as he gets into a stance.

‘Katsuchi style; secret technique, Blaze’

He draws his sword and a swirl of fire bursts from his scabbard. The technique was meant to be used as a single swing in order to catch an opponent off guard with flames suddenly flying from a sword, but in order to gain better control, he continuously swung his flaming sword. The flames seemed to dance around him as he swung his sword. The heat was so intense that the ground he stepped on began to smoke. With each swing, the heat began to bother him less and less. His natural resistance to lightning and fire allowed him to quickly adjust to the heat.

After a few more swings, he sheaths his sword and wipes the sweat from his forehead. He looked at his hands and could see that they were smoking. He walks over to Micheal to ask him for something.

“Hey, could you have someone grab a bucket of water from the hotel?” He asks.

“Sure, but wh-,” He goes to ask but can clearly see the reason once he looks at his hands.

“Just give me a few minutes.” He says as he flies off.

He returns with 2 buckets, one with ice and the other with cold water.

“Thank you,” Kazuna says.

Micheal simply nods in response as Kazuna returns to his training. He dips his hands into the water to cool them off and continues to swing his flaming sword. It was an arduous and painful training process. As the number of times he dipped his hands into the water increased, so did the pain. Any normal person would have given up after the second or third plunge, but his training as an assassin allowed him to go far past that number. After cooling his hands nearly 50 times, he finally lost the ability to grip the hilt of his sword. He sighs as he painfully forces his hands closed to pick his sword back up and sheath it. He looked at his hands and could see that they were beet red and swollen.

Matt went back to the hotel about an hour ago, so it was just him and Micheal there. He sits down in exhaustion and looks up at the stars.

“I wonder how many years it’s been since I last feel over from exhaustion due to training hard.” He thought to himself.

As he stared at the stars and could feel someone approaching, he looked over and could see Micheal walking towards him.

“Sorry for taking so long, I know you probably want to be relaxing in your room by now,” Kazuna notes.

“Don’t worry about it, it is my job to protect you all. After all, how could I be thinking about relaxing after watching you all train so hard?” He replies.

Kazuna chuckles a little as he goes back to staring at the sky. There was a long silence between the two before Micheal broke it.

“When I was briefed about the mission of watching over all of you, I was told of a prodigal student who I would be in charge of. Yuu himself had told me that more than likely he would be completely fine even if something were to happen, so I should focus on watching over the other students. When I arrived here and I met that student i.e. you, I wasn’t impressed, to be honest. Sure you were ahead of your peers, but it felt that many of your classmates could catch up and even surpass you after their training here. But, after watching you today, and even in the previous days, my mindset has changed,” Micheal states.

“How so?” Kazuna asks, a bit curious.

“The first day it seemed that something was holding you back. Sure, it was impressive how well you were able to manage your power compared to everyone else, but to say that you wouldn’t need any help even if there was an attack on the island felt like a bit of an exaggeration. But I knew there had to be more for Yuu to give you such high praise. That’s partially why I asked what you and Matt’s powers were to verify if the information I had been given was wrong or not. Once you verified that you did have access to both fire and wind, I found what you were holding back. I just needed the why. I still don’t have the specifics as to why, but I do know that it has something to do with that girl, Kagura. Obviously, the two of you have figured something out since you were training your fire powers today. Now, I can see why Yuu had so much faith in your strength. With just your lightning, I’d say you’re just slightly above the average special agent, but adding your other powers on top puts you in the same realm as a guy like Yuu. Well, after some more training,” Micheal elaborates.

“I’ve spent years regretting everything. The things I’ve done, the people I’ve wronged, and the ones I’ve failed. There’s much more holding me back than even the people I trust realize. But if there’s anything I’ve learned over the past 6 months or so, it is that letting your regrets hold you down does no good. My past isn’t something I can ignore and just move on from, but I can at least try and evolve into something better. When I was young, I thought that my strength was being used to protect people. It wasn't until years later that I learned that that wasn’t the case. But now, it's different. Now I get to choose how I use my strength and it’s going to be used to protect. To protect my friends, my family, the people, and my comrades.” Kazuna says.

“I see,” Micheal says as he joins Kazuna in looking at the stars.

“Beautiful view this island has.” He notes.

“Mhmm,” Kazuna mumbles as they sit in silence for a while before heading back to the hotel.

The next day, Kazuna continued the same training from the day before. Thanks to his ability to heal quickly, his hands were practically completely healed. He was also able to swing his sword for longer before needing to dip his hands into the water, but he was still far from where he wanted to be. For now, he was only getting used to the flames before he even bothered with control.

Back at the hotel, both Ayame and Akeno were in the library, improving their powers in their own way. Ayame was studying the blueprints of any and everything she could find. However, Akeno had decided to use her time to contemplate a thought that had been bothering her.

“I still don’t get it. I don’t see any plausible reason as to why I wouldn’t have been able to find some connection between the dragons in Kazuna’s swords and the way they interact with his power and how powers work in general. There has to be some deeper reason as to why I wasn’t able to make the connection.” She thinks to herself.

She was currently reading a book about powers and what we understood about them. She found it quite funny how much they had wrong and didn’t know it. 

“I wonder if this Athena talking to me has something to do with it. No, that isn’t even the biggest question. How on Earth could the entirety of the human race forget about something as large as a war amongst dragons? I could understand different interpretations of what exactly happened at the final battle as well as there being multiple deities for each important dragon, but for there to be absolutely no record of dragons at all is inconceivable. Maybe, maybe the dragons did something to alter everyone’s memories. These dragons seem to be akin to gods themselves, so it seems like something that they would be more than capable of doing.” She theorizes.

She begins to grab books that go over the history of multiple religions and civilizations that existed around the time of the enlightenment. She noticed that there was a sort of trend of there being a blank spot around that time. She looked up the reasons historians give for the blank and it boiled down to them assuming that they just haven’t found those records. It didn’t help that some religions and civilizations were only beginning to gain traction around that time.

“There’s still one thing that doesn’t add up.” She notes to herself as she grabs another book.

“Kazuna likened Kan to Jesus, but the timetable doesn’t add up. How does that fit into the equation?” She questions.

As she reads about everything Jesus spread and was acquitted for, she noticed the wording was a bit curious.

“And so he proclaimed himself to be the son of our savior. The knowledge he commanded made his declarations seem believable. But the Romans found his beliefs heretical as his monotheistic views differed from their polytheistic ones. As he died, he proclaimed that he had spread no lies and that they would all be saved once again.” She reads to herself. 

She leans back in her chair and begins to think.

“According to Kazuna, his clan always affiliated itself with the most powerful civilization, country, or kingdom of the time. If that’s the case, then they would have been based in Rome during that time. It could very well be possible that Jesus was a member of his clan and could have been the head at the time. It would explain him being the ‘son of our savior’. It could also be plausible that the clan itself was responsible for his death. He could have even had a son in secret and that’s why the clan felt comfortable with killing him.” She theorizes.

“Kazuna, a descendant of Jesus. I’m sure there are plenty of people that would get a kick out of that.” Akeno thinks to herself with a slight chuckle.

“In any case, I should probably keep this to myself. I just wonder what Kazuna and the other dragons are going to do once Amaraz awakens?” She questions herself.

“That is the question of the ages.” She hears a voice say.

She quickly sits up and looks around the room, but doesn’t see anybody other than Ayame off in the corner. 

“You could look around all day but I’m afraid that you would never find me.” The voice notes.

The voice was definitely in her head, but even though she knew it wasn’t her talking, it still sounded like her voice. 

“Sorry, this must be very confusing and disorientating for you. We have spoken before, though it wasn’t at a time when you were fully conscious. I am Athena, the dragon of knowledge.” The voice states.

Akeno, quickly getting a grasp of the situation, calms herself and takes a deep breath.

“I must say, it is quite odd to hear a voice in my head that sounds like mine but at the same time sounds like the voice of another,” Akeno notes.

Athena chuckled a little.

“Sorry about that. Since I am still in a slumber, I am unable to speak to you with my own voice, so this is the best that I can do.” She states.

“It’s fine. So, what encouraged you to speak with me so directly?” Akeno asks.

“I thought I’d give you some confirmation to the theories that you’ve been brewing up,” Athena answered.

“Why? It seems odd for you to go out of your way for something like that.” Akeno wonders.

“There are three reasons for it. 1.) You’re a close associate to Kan’s reincarnation and this information could be useful to him. 2.) Because of your relation to Kazuna, you will get sucked into the conflict to come so as a sort of atonement for that, I wanted to help you out. 3.) I kind of like you.” Athena answers.

Akeno smiled a little.

“I must say, it does feel good to hear that the dragon of knowledge sees something in you that she likes," Akeno notes.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Now, to answer some of your questions. After Amaraz was defeated and sealed, I enacted a plan to change the memories of everyone on Earth other than Kan, of course. I felt that after what my fellow dragons did to humans, it was very likely that humans would hunt dragons once they gained and began to develop their powers. I was hoping that if we erased their memories of dragons at the time, the animosity humans felt towards dragons would have dissipated when Amaraz eventually awakened along with the other dragons. To add to that and answer your question of whether humans and dragons should interact with one another, I’m not sure. Despite all of my knowledge, I don’t know if humans would hunt us dragons. I am not worried about a few humans working outside the law to hunt us. A similar thing would happen with dragons hunting humans, but would the human race be able to share this world with another race?” Athena notes.

“That’s the exact same thing that I was wondering about, but wouldn’t it be worth a shot? And even if it didn’t work out, couldn’t you enact the same plan to change our race’s memories about dragons?” Akeno questions.

“It would be difficult, or maybe not if I was aided by a few trusted humans,” Athena answers.

“Well, then why not give it a shot? It would be a shame to seal away the knowledge that your kind possesses without even trying to make it work. And who knows, maybe humans and dragons alike will surprise you.” Akeno states.

Athena laughs loudly.

“Yes, I’m sure you would love to hear about the things that I know. That is why I love your race so much. You are all always full of surprises. Maybe you all will surprise me once again,” Athena states.

There was a brief silence before Akeno asked a question.

“Will I be able to talk with you again? Not just on the island, but once we return to Japan?” She asks.

There was another silence before Athena answered.

“That depends if you survive until then, and I pray that you do.” She says.

And just like that, her own voice returned to her head and she knew that Athena had left.

“If I survive? Does that mean that something is going to happen while we’re here? Is there anything that I can do to prevent it, or is it too late?” She asks herself.

She realized that she had been sitting there for some time and could see that it had started to get dark. She returned the books she grabbed to where they belonged and headed to her room.

“Should I tell Ms. Saugoma about this? No, the only person I could tell is Kazuna. But, should I add more to the burden that already weighs down on him?” She continuously asked herself this question along with several others until she finally dozed off.