I open the door to see Yamiso kneeling on the floor, grasping a slightly burned arm.

"I...hope I'm not barging in at a bad time."

"For the time being, the issue has been settled." Hisao remarks, resuming his smoking.

Even with the smoke hiding his figure, I've seen him enough throughout the building to know his appearance. At 198 centimeters with a muscular build for a fire tone, he is quite fit for the age of around 70, even with his bad habits. Well, when I say muscular, I mean only slightly so. Not to the degree of an animal tone. He's got his jet-black hair in his usual ponytail with his beard trimmed as short as possible. I'm impressed that he has no gray hairs yet. As for his personality, he's a bit hard to read, even now. When he gets serious about anything, he has a "face of a leader" with a frightening disposition whenever he's fighting anybody who angers him. He didn't get the nickname "Hell's Kulshedra" for nothing. But, whenever he's not acting his role, he doesn't act his age either. Basically, he's in that stage of denial when it comes to old age.

"Do you know why we called you here, Oren?" he asks.

I cough a few times, then say, "It's about his fighting skills, correct?"

Hisao nods.

Seeing me cough, Katsumi takes out one of his signature poker cards, infuses his wind rhime into it, and tosses it at Hisao's cigarette, cutting off the end. The card returns to Katsumi's hand and disperses the smoke on the return trip.

Katsumi Ordinance is the Keisetsu's financial advisor and actually a former comrade in arms to Hisao. However, being a wind tone, he looks much younger, as though he was in his 30's rather than 70's. He is around 190 centimeters and his attire consists mostly of formal clothing one would wear to casinos. A dress coat, vest, tie, trousers, and so on. He has short, combed blond hair, and what I assume to be a diamond earring in his left ear. Honestly, his clothing is fitting, as he's all business in every sense of the word. Aside from his gambling vocabulary, anyway.

"Indeed," Katsumi states. "Hisao and I would like you to do another assessment test."

"Give us a damn break!" Yamiso retorts. "He's been here a week, and you're still testing him!? Either let him join, or don't! We've got more pressing matters to attend to than testing trainees!"

"I understand your concerns, Yamiso." Hisao replies, trying to hold back his anger following the destruction of his cigarette. "But Katsumi and I have been unable to decide on allowing for Oren to become an official member. And Oren, you know why we're continuing to do this. If you would please cooperate on your next test, it will make it easier for us to come up with a decision. We're only continuing these tests at Crystal's request."

I turn my head away from the three of them. What they want to do is assess my subtone capabilities. It didn't occur to me when I asked to join Crystal and Yamiso that I would have to be able to use any rhime techniques, though it should've been obvious. Truth be told, I'm only still here because of what Crystal saw when I recovered from the stab to my lung by Hisashi.

What did you expect? You're fighting people without any true rhime skills of your own.

Your subtone isn't clairvoyance. Clairvoyance doesn't heal physical wounds.

"Katsumi," Hisao continues, "please ask either Claire or Tamashi to be Oren's..."

"I'll do it." Yamiso states.

"Oh?" Hisao and Katsumi say in unison.

"I need something to relieve my anger on."

I look to Yamiso, then nod to Hisao. Hisao then faintly smiles and shrugs.

"Fine."

"Alright then," Katsumi proclaims. "Please, fo..."

"We know the way, already, damn it!" Yamiso retorts.

As he leaves the office, I silently follow suit.

(Guess they aren't as carefree as I thought.)

I leave the office, following Yamiso. Katsumi looks to Hisao.

"They'll be fine." Hisao states.

"I wouldn't bet on that."

After going down a few flights of stairs, we get to the underground arena we use for training. The overall layout is similar to that of First Age Roman coliseums with the exception of the rhime barriers to prevent any attacks from hitting the audience. Hisao sits down in the first row, Katsumi goes to the announcer room near the top of the arena, and Yamiso and I head directly into the arena itself. I look to Yamiso and, no surprise, he's still silent with much on his mind.

"Oren. Yamiso." Katsumi announces over the loudspeaker. "Are you ready to begin?"

The two of us nod. I slowly put my right hand over the hilt of my blade hanging from my waist on the right side.

"Any handicaps, Yamiso?" Katsumi asks.

"No alternative metal." Yamiso says bluntly.

"Anything else, Oren?"

"I request a song that will give neither of us an advantage. A full version, please."

(Kind of hard to guarantee that, when we don't know your rhime type.) Katsumi thinks.

"Fine then. One random full song coming up."

Yamiso and I go into our fighting stances.

(Soul Conversion 10...BEAT!)

The sound of a guitar blares through the arena. I heard Ripperu play this a few days ago. This is "Through the Night" by Masahiko Arimachi. Before the first set of lyrics begins, Yamiso and I rush towards each other. I unsheathe my sword, having it to collide with Yamiso's Devil's Claw shield with both his hands.

semenai de kesanai de makenai de

With every word, I perform a diagonal slash to get around Yamiso's claws. And with each block, Yamiso counters with his open arm to perform a slow, and rather reckless, slash. It seems he'll be fighting like this for most of the fight.

dare datte motteru hazu yuzurenai mono

After a few blows and counterblows, I perform a kick to one of Yamiso's claws to push myself back a few meters, giving me some distance. Darkness tones are renowned for their offense and defense alongside their very slow speed.

(Seems I can't attack from the front.)

I set off running around the arena with my enhanced speed.

(Soul Conversion 5...BEAT!)

ai dake yume dake kimi dake

At every "dake", I rush towards him with a spinning axe kick, then push myself back to create distance, and continue circling him. The first hits he blocks, the second grazes him, and the third kick hits him in the back of the head, forcing him to perform an angry backwards swing.

sore dake wa hanasanai donna toki de mo

Quickly getting behind Yamiso, I jump into the air with both hands on my sword.

(Fourth Age: Oni Spinning Fang!)

I perform my vertical spinning sword slash down towards Yamiso, who doesn't have time to counter with his claws.

(Darkness Drive: Fallen Wings!)

Before I collide with him, Yamiso's wings protect him from the blow, which crashes him into the arena floor, creating a shockwave.

(Darkness Drive: Darkness Bellow!)

WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I quickly push myself off his wings to back away from him, barely dodging the blast emitted from his mouth. As the music continues before the next verse, he prepares another Darkness Bellow. Seeing that I don't have time to dodge upon landing, I prepare to thrust my sword into the ground when I land.

WWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I land and brace myself, but the blast pushes me backwards while ripping my cloak to shreds. However, I manage to keep my blade rooted in the ground, and holding onto it, spares me from being launched into the wall. I yank my sword from the ground and, at the sight of a shadow before me, look up to see Yamiso preparing to slash downwards with his left claw.

dou shiyou mo naku ochitsukanai yoru

I backflip to dodge the attack, forcing myself against the wall. By this point, my cloak is fully repaired. Yamiso thrusts his claw towards me, missing my head as I duck and digging his claw into the wall. He then slices sideways through the wall towards my head.

nani mo ka mo nagedashitaku naru

(Soul Conversion 3...BEAT!)

Before his claw reaches me, I rush around him and kick him into the wall. With his arm temporarily stuck, I barrage him with a multitude of kicks. He blocks my sword swings with his other claw. Seems he isn't very focused today, even by his standards.

tsube kobe iwazu ni sassato DOA o akena

Catching me off guard, Yamiso rips his claw from the wall along with a portion of it, forcing me to jump back...

WWWWWWOOOOOOO!!!!!

And get knocked back by a surprise Darkness Bellow. I quickly backflip to land on my feet, just to see Yamiso flying towards me.

rikutsu nante koneteru HIMA wa nai

A jump back to dodge a few swings from his claws, but his fourth swing allows him to grab my sword, forcing me to stop moving and allowing him to force his weight down on me, bringing me to my knees.

Even if he isn't very focused, this will be a tough fight.