483 AS, Thalorien.
Otoru dug through the trash bin in the dark alleyway, in hopes of finding anything to eat or even drink. It had been 2 days since he ate or drank anything. He couldn't even find the energy in him to move properly.
He was just 9 at the time and obviously lacked the height and physique he had in the present. His hair was extremely long and dirty, filth and bugs covering it.
"Ah!" His eyes lit up with hope. A rotten piece of bread. It was big enough to take 3-4 bites. "This can get me through tomorrow."
"You little brat!" Suddenly, a middle-aged homeless man kicked him in the stomach. "This is my trash! Stay out!"
Otoru fell on the ground. If he had anything in his stomach to vomit, he would. Due to being just a kid, he struggled to breathe after that hit. "Give me that!" The man then squatted down and grabbed the piece of bread from his hand.
But Otoru wouldn't let go; he had a surprisingly powerful grip.
"You little shit!" Out of patience, the man punched him in the face and broke his nose, then, as Otoru dropped the bread, he finally picked it up.
"Give it to me…" Otoru sobbed in pain. "...I'm hungry…"
"So am I!" Filled with anger, the man kicked him in the face for the last time. "Next time, know your place. This is my territory!"
Otoru placed a hand on his chest and struggled to breathe. "My body feels like it's about to burn… my head hurts…" he muttered.
As the man turned his back on Otoru and moved to leave the alleyway, an overwhelming presence filled the surroundings, forcing the man to freeze. He turned around in fear and stared at death itself.
"MY FOOD," Otoru growled, his eyes fully black with no light to be seen. "GIVE!"
Present day.
Otoru dashed forward with a stance Kaan couldn't exactly read, due to how violent it was. He swung his hands. Kaan stepped to the side to dodge them.
But the beast wouldn't let go. Otoru dug his teeth into Kaan's shoulder. "Your fragile teeth won't get throug-" As Kaan was about to boast, an invisible force hit him once more in the face.
"This feeling– It's soul damage! But how? A moment ago his earrings glowed, but now… nothing!" Kaan was sent back with this attack.
"RAGH!" Otoru roared and repeatedly slashed Kaan's chest. The attacks followed each other like a barrage of bullets. They failed to damage Kaan, though the damage was adding up slowly but surely. Kaan stared into Otoru's eyes and started laughing in shock. "You? You had something like this up your sleeve?!" He grabbed Otoru's skull and bashed it with his knee.
"KILL!" Several ghosts punched Kaan at the same time, though his earrings didn't glow. "MY FOOD!" He spoke through the pain.
"He is actually damaging me! How can a nobody like this damage the soul?" Kaan tried to defend himself against the invisible threat.
As Otoru got out of Kaan's grip, he ran along the floor on all fours, leaped at Kaan, and grabbed onto his waist with his legs.
He then started repeatedly headbutting Kaan's face, even though he was being damaged more than Kaan was. Kaan grabbed onto Otoru's head before another headbutt, but Otoru then tried to bite off Kaan's nose.
In return, Kaan punched Otoru's chest with both of his fists and launched him back. "My soul damage is weakening me. Those punches were supposed to pierce him. And the damage I accumulated in my fight with Imito…" To him, Otoru wasn't just a random nobody now.
Out of all people, Kaan knew best not to underestimate someone with those eyes. "KILL… KILL! I'M STARVING!" Otoru got on all fours again and lunged forward like an animal.
Kaan hooked Otoru's face before he even got onto him, but Otoru used his own momentum against Kaan to deliver a spinning kick, shocking Kaan. "That move! He copied me? No, he doesn't have the talent to copy… I saw at least 5 flaws in his execution. A copy user wouldn't do that. Then that must mean Otoru is learning! He is coming up with my fighting style without knowledge of it!"
Kaan's feet slid on the ground, but he didn't fall over. He looked up to see Otoru midair, coming down from the sky. Kaan blocked over his head.
But then, Otoru stepped on the ghost he summoned, using it to perform an air-jump. He backflipped midair and fell before Kaan could change his defense, and he uppercut Kaan's chin while his ghosts rapidly punched his stomach. "This kid is way weaker than me in every way possible! So why the hell am I about to lose?" Despite how pessimistic his sentence was, Kaan was laughing through the beating with pure euphoria.
"Alright then, I should show you the difference between someone who mastered their will to kill and someone who fights like a desperate animal!" Kaan kicked Otoru with full force and launched him away.
He changed his stance by putting one foot over the other. He lifted his right hand and tilted it so his fingers pointed to the left, his palm wide open. His left was behind and lower than his right, clenched into a fist. "This is my 'Endless Killing,' something an animal like you cannot dream of achieving."
In response, Otoru let out a noise that was between a roar and an animalistic screech. He dashed forward, his nails bleeding from even daring to damage Kaan.
With his open right, Kaan grabbed Otoru's arm and twisted him midair, opening his stomach for his left to slam him down on the floor. A mixture of Aikido and his own touches.
Kaan then added to it by repeatedly stomping Otoru's face to the point where his kicks left blurry images of themselves.
Almost like he was unaffected by his wound, Otoru summoned a ghost that swept Kaan's feet. However, Otoru didn't let him fall. He uppercut Kaan's head with one of his ghosts and forced him to stand upright.
"I AM…" he growled. "...THE WEAKEST THERE IS."
His entire body twitched violently as he charged the remainder of his strength, the remainder of his Aura Link.
With speeds that even the heavily weakened and wounded Kaan couldn't react to, Otoru unleashed his finishing moves. His earrings glowed this time, and with his own fists and the fists of his ghosts, he started his beatdown.
Left, right. Liver, chest. Head, feet. It didn't matter. He punched and hooked like tomorrow didn't exist, like this was his final fight. Each hook made it harder for Kaan to defend.
"The weakest? Otoru The Undefeated… I take back everything I said!" Kaan grinned through the attacks, his body near defeat as the consequences of his battle with Imito piled up with Otoru's rage. "You are amazing! You have no talent, yet you carry a will that puts my despair to shame! I was so wrong! You're not Infamy's sidekick! You're a legend that is just taking his first steps!"
"But–" Kaan grabbed Otoru's fist. "You still have a long way to go." He crushed Otoru's hand. "Your abilities being invisible shouldn't have mattered. My Murderous Intent should've been able to react to it. But because your Treasure didn't have any signals… I couldn't prepare myself. Your mind was so shut off that you didn't even think about activating it!" As he got the opening, he smashed Otoru's face with all his might and slammed him into the floor. It sent a shockwave that echoed through the castle and left a giant hole in the dirt.
He pulled out his fist. Otoru was now out for good. The blood dripped from his hand, and he stood tall, taking a deep breath. "Keep the title, Otoru. You've won."
He turned his back and walked away, sparing his life.
And just in time, Joka dragged Kai's unconscious body through the floor, seemingly without a scratch on his body. "Dude, you look messed up!" Joka cackled as he approached Kaan. "I was against a legend– No, two legends. Of course, I took damage." Kaan prepared himself and coughed all the soot from his lungs violently.
"You killed him?" Joka looked at the lying body of Otoru.
"...No." Kaan wiped the spit out of his mouth. "It'd bring bad luck."