Ten Years Later - Start of the Fallen Kingdom Arc:

Mrs. Maeda leaned back into her couch. The house was covered in a comfortable silence save for her pet cat meowing every so often. She let out a content sigh. Rikuto’s bag had been fully packed with everything he owned and he and Lucas would be arriving any moment now.

‘Mom, mom!’ She remembered him saying. ‘Look at this.’ It was an article on the front page of their local newspaper.

New School: Milky Way Academy Set To Open In Sept.

She went on to further read into it. ‘The head of the school is the former leader of the Combat Corps, Star Breaker Ochi Masaru?!’ She was very surprised to see such a thing. Normally, the Starbreaker, current and former either died in the line of service, or faded away from the limelight when time got to them. The more she read, the more her jaw dropped. Many of the teachers appeared to be former high-ranking officers themselves. It sounded almost surreal to hear that her son has the potential to learn under such decorated and powerful warriors.

Like any normal mother, Lisa had her doubts. ‘I don’t know, Riku. This sounds really dangerous.’ She did little to hide her concern. Riku waved her off without hesitation.

‘Yeah, but I know you’ve seen the papers. Yokai are getting more numerous and violent lately.’ He argued.

Mrs. Maeda had no choice but to concede that point. The attacks, once rare, now happened almost as frequent as twice a week and things were getting concerning. Even some of the higher level officers on duty had requested her and her son to be high on alert.

‘Lucas’ parents are sending him there.’ Rikuto said in the sweetest voice he could possibly manage. Lisa inwardly groaned. She knew whenever Lucas was involved in anything, Rikuto was bound to follow. Normally, she wouldn’t mind since Lucas’ power far surpassed that of even herself, but she still had her doubts.

After many, many hours of convincing, it led her to where she was now. Laying on her side, in an empty home waiting patiently for Riku to come home to collect his things.

“Hey.” Lisa heard a voice interrupt her slumber. “You awake, Mom?”

Lisa rolled over and opened her eyes. “Hn?”

“Mom, it’s me,” Riku gently shook her until she sat up and faced him. “Sorry to wake you.”

“It’s okay,” She yawned loudly. “It’s quite alright, dear. What is it?”

Riku looked at his mother for a long moment before answering. “Today’s the day.” He looked at her for any notable reactions. “I’ve got to be at the compound in fifteen min-..”

Lisa lunged at her son and brought him in a tight embrace. Small tears formed in the corner of her eye as she spoke. “I know, I know. I’m so proud of you, Riku.”

“Can’t… breathe… Mom.” Rikuto gasped, tapping his mother on the shoulder.

“Hey, Mrs. Maeda, I think Riku there is suffocating.” Lucas said casually. He tried to suppress his laughing only to fail miserably. Lisa made an ‘oh!’ sound before releasing her boy and watching him gasp for breath. “Sorry to interrupt but we really have to go.”

Both Lucas and Riku sat in the back of the former’s limo completely quiet. Lucas glanced at him through the corner of his eye to see an unpleasant sight.

“Stop biting your fingernails.” He said with a scowl.

“I can’t help it! I’m nervous.” Riku defended. “I can’t understand how you aren’t.” Lucas rolled his eyes.

“Why would I be? I doubt there will be anyone there that can even hope to match me.” The golden-eyed boy responded as though it should’ve been obvious. Rikuto just regarded his friend with a deadpan, not really having the words to argue against him.

“You never know, maybe you’ll finally meet your match.” Lucas scoffed at such a notion.

“You know how strong I am first hand. If I had a match, we would’ve fought long ago and I would’ve won.” The older boy crossed his arms over his chest tightly, leaving Riku to sigh.

They fell into silence after that. Neither looked at each other as the air grew thick with anxiety and eventually boiling over when they finally arrived. What they saw made both of their jaws drop.

They entered a large gate and noticed that the actual building was much, much further along. From what they could see, many students were standing out front with bags in their hands and some were standing off to the side with hands in their pockets and a distant look in their eyes.

As expected, the limo drew attention to them, but Lucas had long since gotten used to being the center of attention. Rikuto on the other hand, didn’t have the same privilege. His face turned beet red and he had his head down as he walked, much to the annoyance of Lucas.

“Walk with pride.” The older boy commanded with a whisper. Rikuto did his best to match the elegance and nobility of his best friend but only ended up looking extremely uncomfortable. This drew some chuckles from the crowd. Lucas turned to glare at them. “What are you all laughing at?” He asked coldly. In the same moment, some of Lucas’ aura leaked out. The laughter fell quiet in an instant. “Thought so.”

While this did nothing to help Rikuto’s embarrassment, it did give him a reason to raise his head and look around. The first thing he noticed was two boys whose presence alone was overwhelming. He assumed they were brothers by their similar apparences and proximity to each other and seeing them interact only served to fortify his assumption. The tallest one had short, messy, blonde hair and bright blue turquoise eyes. He kept his sharp face stoned on what seemed to be a permanent scowl and his brother seemed the same way. His hair was significantly longer and tied in a low pony-tail. His face had a bit more baby fat around the cheeks and thus, he looked less intimidating.

The third person Rikuto noticed was a boy with medium-length, messy, charcoal black hair leaning against a pillar with both hands in his pockets and face tilted slightly upwards in the sunlight. His face held a calm demeanor and both eyes were closed. Rikuto only figured out the boy was awake when he seemingly felt he was being stared at and side-eyed Riku.

A bright, brilliant scarlet red eye with a surprising slitted pupil met his own gaze and he paused. Riku felt as though his entire body had been washed over by an ocean of flame and the aura the boy gave off in a single glance was enough to cause Riku’s breathing to labour. Lucas noticed this.

“Dude, what’s wrong?” He tapped his shoulder in concern.

It took Riku a moment to gather himself. “N-nothing. I just… I don’t know about this anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Lucas questioned.

“These people are… they seem really strong.”

“And we’re not?”

“You are! I’m not.” Riku quickly bit back. Before anything else could be said, Lucas raised a hand up to Rikuto’s face and let out a flash that was bright enough to get everyone’s attention.

“Look, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I’m not about to stand here and let you throw away the literal years of training we put into getting to where we are now.” Lucas scolded, his voice rising in intensity with each word.

“B-but-...”

“But nothing. You want to get stronger to protect everyone, right? You want to surpass me, right? You want to avenge him, right?! Well, stop acting like such a scared little kid.”

Almost as soon as the final word left Lucas’ mouth, the massive doors to the school opened. Students grabbed their things and went in with only a few murmerings until only Lucas and Rikuto remained.

“Last chance to choose. You turn away, you’ll never get to find out what happened all those years ago. You’ll never get the chance to right that wrong. Come,” Lucas held out his closed fist. “You come now, and I promise, I’ll help you find out what happened to your dad.”

Tears threatened to fall out of Riku’s eyes as Lucas’ finished his speech. “Thanks, man. You really are the best.” He gave him a fist bump.

“I know,” Lucas replied. “But, stop crying. Have some pride.”

The group of students followed the large corridor and all wound up in a decently sized auditorium. Upon taking their seats, a deep, booming voice echoed over the intercom. “Welcome!” The voice said cheerily. “Welcome to Milky Way Academy. I’m the Headmaster,” As if on queue, a large set of curtains slid across the stage to reveal an elderly man. He had grey, low-cut hair and a large, bushy beard. From what Riku could see, he was also extremely muscular under his buttoned-up white shirt and blue dress pants. “Former Star Breaker, Ochi Masaru.”

The entire auditorium fell silent. Ochi inwardly smirked. “Judging by the surprised look on your faces, I take it I’m not what you expected. But fear not! This old body still is plenty capable,” To demonstrate, he raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. An impossibly strong vibration pulsated outwards and knocked the wind out of everyone present. Eyes widened, jaws dropped and some people looked genuinely afraid. “Now then, on to the main event. You lot are the students who have been hand-picked by me and my staff for your immense potential, knowledge and willingness to help your country. Just standing here, I can sense the overwhelming power between you and me and my staff look forward to working with you all and molding you all into the next generation to protect this world from Yokai.” As he concluded, the crowd of students gave him a light applause, which put a smirk on his face.

“For the next hour, we shall be splitting you all apart. As I call your name, you will come up here and show the crowd what you can do,” he gestured vaguely to his side as a platform rose from the ground containing what seemed to be small, glowing red orbs. “And these will be your opponents.” He crushed the object and instantly, a tall, vaguely animalist puppet appeared out of a cloud of smoke and stood beside him with the symbol for ‘test’ written where it’s face would be. “Let us begin.”

As the first student got called, Riku looked over at Lucas with fear and anxiety on his face. “They’re making us fight that?! I can’t even sense it!” Rikuto protested silently. Lucas simply looked annoyed.

“I know right? A school such as this making me use my power on such trash.” He responded, “But I guess it can’t be helped.”

Riku simply gave him an incredulous stare. “Not my point, Cloud!”

“Back with this weakness. Look, stop acting like you have no power. Now’s your chance to show all of these maggots what you’re capable of.” Lucas half commanded, half encouraged. “Look, I’m up next, I’m going to show you how it’s done.”