A Message to the Unknown

Hayashi Kagekyo, now restored to his normal body and in possession of his bag, was en route to Hama town. He had run into some guy who claimed to be Shade, his father, and a young girl named Leathe, who oddly enough looked like Loran, Hayashi's own mother. He pondered the implications of the event, but arrived at nothing that logically made sense. "Hopefully Atsuya should have an answer for me about this." he whispered to himself.

Aoi Masaharu was travelling around Hama Town, right after he got off the last day of school. He looked around for a dango shop. He weirdly had a craving for dango these days. He finally found a dango shop in a far corner of the town. "Two sticks of dango please," he smiled at the old lady at the counter.

As Hayashi entered the town gates, no one seemed to notice. He was feeling a bit hungry so he walked over to the same dango shop Aoi was at, drawn by spiritual pressure in the area. As he walked up to the counter, he smiled politely, masking his true feelings of unease from recent events. "Hello, I'll have three sticks please." he said while pulling out the money he was given earlier that day.

Aoi noticed the immense reiryoku he felt next to him, and turned his head to look at the young man closely. "Judging from his appearance, he might as well be around my age," he thought. "I'd like to have a cup of sencha too," his eyes disappeared the moment he smiled again. "Of course you can, you cute little thing," the old lady smiled warmly back at Aoi, which caused Aoi's cheeks to redden a bit, not expecting to be complimented by an old lady.

"What're you looking at kid?" Hayahi asked, wondering why the guy next to him was looking. "Do I still have a cut on my face or something?" he added before once again thinking back to his encounter with Blackheart.

"What? No. It's perfectly fine. I was just wondering. How old are you? You have humongous reiryoku. But you look like you're around the same age as me," Aoi said innocently. He popped one of the dango into his mouth and chewed it using the left side, "You like dango? It's really nice. You should try it with sencha. It makes the taste even better. Am I rambling? Sorry, it's a habit to ramble," he said all in one breath.

"I'm nineteen. My enormous power is because, to be honest, I'm not your average Shinigami." Hayashi said, starting to eat. "Oh, and I like ramblers, I don't like talking much myself."

"You are nineteen? So am I! Want to be friends? Am I too direct? I get that sometimes. Finally, I found someone who doesn't mind ramblers. It's not fun rambling, but it just comes out sometime, you know? We're going to be such great friends," Aoi rambled, obviously excited. "I'm not a shinigami, I'm a Quincy. You know, the archer like people? Even if you aren't a Quincy, you should try archery sometime. It's fun. Especially the thrill you get when you hit a bullseye. Oh, is that Menos I sense? Want to fight it together?" Aoi asked.

Hayashi laughed. "Kid, relax. A Menos isn't scary, but it you want to fight it, let's go." While he spoke, he grabbed his black jacket that once belonged to his father out of the bag. "Lead the way, young archer."

"Really? We can fight it? Wow. I never got to fight any Menos for a long time. I'm so glad I'm not in school now. The holidays rock! Let's go! It's this way," he gathered spiritual particles under their feet and move to the north of where they were. "Did you ever see that? It's called a-" Aoi was interrupted by the sound of the Menos. His quincy cross turned into a bow with gold at the handle. He shot arrows at it, then signalled for the new guy to join the fight. "By the way, I haven't got your name yet," he smiled, "I'm Aoi Masaharu. Nice to meet you."

"Hayashi Kagekyo. Formerly the Demonic Son of God. Well met Aoi. As for you trick, I know enough about it to say, you better pay attention to where you're going, if you want to live past the next year." With a single motion, Hayashi pulled wires from his ring and converted them into chains, a skill he's worked on since he came in contact with Essentiam Inferno, thanks to Asuka Heart. The wire-chains became a defensive wall, protecting them both while allowing Aoi to shoot.

"This thing won't hold for long, so don't get too close." he added with a touch of sarcasm, knowing full well what the chains could withstand.