**FAMILY GROUNDS**

**COLOSSEUM**

**JULY 5, 2012**

At the rocketing and exploding of fireworks, and the sounding of new-era pop music,

signaled the commencing of the long-awaited day throughout all the country; the

Hunters Tournament! Many had gathered from all around inside the Clans’ Colosseum,

situated at the very center of complex. It was a majestically-constructed stadium,

arguably one of the finest architectures within the whole land. It was circular in shape,

standing at a height of 50 meters, having a perimeter of 502 meters and a base area of

20,000 square meters. There was also a square-shaped stage within the center spanning

1000 square meters, with Torii Gates facing each other on the East and West sides. The

Colosseum had a total of 6 storeys, and 8 main entrances according to the 8 Cardinal

Points, as well as two waiting centers for competitors on both the Eastern and Western

sections, having Torii Gates at their entrances as well.. There was also a glass ceiling

that covered the entire construction, reinforced with Magical Energy to prevent

shattering by any causes.

As the day’s proceedings were about to commence, the host for the day started with an

energetic greeting; it was none other than Katashi!

"Ladiiieeess and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, I welcome you all today to our highly

esteemed septennial event, the Hunters' Tournament! I'm Katashi Sanjuro, and I'll be

your host for today! But first, I'd like for everyone to greet the most honored Clan

Heads, make some noise for Lords Gadō and Tenchi, and Mistresses Miri and Yura!!"

At the Northern section of the Colosseum upon the 6th Floor was a special seating area

for the Clan Heads; and there sat at the forefront the Two Heads with their wives, along

with Emir Yamaguchi and Fūdo Sanjuro in the background, the two being High Rankers

as well as relatives of the Heads. The 4 Leaders waved to the audience with warm smiles.

"Before we get into the day's proceedings, let's hear some brief words from the Sanjuro

Clan Head, Gadō-sama!"

Invited to address the audience, Gadō stood up and approached the railing, and began

speaking:

"Clan members, spectators from all about the country, it's a great pleasure to gather

with you all in this setting once more, on our 19th Hunters Tournament.”

“Today will serve as an introduction for you all, to the new generation of Hunters we've

been raising up for the past 2 years."

"It does dishearten me a little that we have no outside competitors, considering this is

an open competition. But nevertheless, I encourage all competitors to show us what

you're made of; fight to your heart's content, put on the very best display of your

abilities! Spectators, just sit back, and enjoy the thrills that'll come your way. Don’t

blink, or you’ll miss the show of your lifetime."

With those words, he began returning to his seat, and a big round of applause and

cheering echoed throughout the Colosseum.

"Amazing words from our very own, Gadō-sama! Now, without further ado, let's bring

out the people you've all been waiting to see...Competitors, come on out to the stage!"

The Hunter Trainees all marched in from out of the waiting centers, adorned in stunning

fighting apparel, and gathered on opposite sides of the ring, facing each other. Jamal and

Tarik were among them of course, both situated on either side. The spectators all looked

on in adoration and awe at the young warriors.

"Look at those strong kids!"

"They're all so young..."

"Look at those two on either side, they look the youngest!"

"There's 4 females among them too!"

Katashi then re-addressed the audience,

“These 16 will be showing us today all that they’ve been able to achieve over the past

years. Some were able to make dramatic improvements, while some already had

outstanding prowess that they managed to hone even further,” he said as he glanced

over on Ilmar and Satoru.

“However, these fights won’t simply be just one-on-one matchups. I’ll now be explaining

the rules regarding today’s matches. Tenchi-sama?”

“Already on it, Katashi-san,” Tenchi responded from his position as he formed a hand

sign:

Shapeshift. · 形狀転換 (Kei-jou Ten-kan)

In the middle of the ring appeared two circular slots, each marked with colors red and

blue. Afterward, there appeared plugs just about larger than baseball bats within the

slots, also according to color. The trainees and audience all looked on at the technique

Tenchi performed.

"Those look like…plugs? And they're placed into slots…" – Ilmar thought to himself.

"I'll now elaborate on how these games will be played," Katashi continued:

"As you can see, there are 2 connectors in the center of the ring. These matches will be

single-elimination, your standard one-on-one battle. At the start of each match, each

competitor will be given a connector according to color. The goal of the game is to

simply plug your connector into the designated slot, the winner being the first one to

insert their connector," he explained as he took a connector and plugged it back in.

"Keep in mind, however, that it's not impossible to insert your connector into the wrong

slot. If you do this, your opponent will gain the victory." - he demonstrated by taking

both connectors and inserting them into opposite slots.

"In regards to ending a match, there are numerous ways; as I said before, the first

person to insert a connector wins. If a connector falls out of the ring, it cannot be

recovered; this doesn’t mean disqualification, but the winner will be the one who

inserts the final connector."

"As for competitors...you can and will be disqualified under various conditions until

further notice: Ring-Out, Submission, Knockout, and in the extremely unlikely scenario

where both competitors are disqualified, the match ends in a draw, and the fighters

remain disqualified.”

“In case you didn't pick up by now, if both connectors are lost, then the game becomes a

Last-Man-Standing match. All in all, even if a player is disqualified and a connector

remains, it must be plugged in to decide the match; with a time-limit of 10 seconds in

this scenario."

At this point, Satoru had gotten confirmation on something strange that was said

earlier:

"I see...I was wondering what he meant by ’until further notice’. With that time limit, it

simply means that if a player is disqualified, they'll still have a chance based on their

opponent’s actions. Say, if they were to plug the connector in the wrong slot for any reason.

Although, I think the most likely condition where you’d get this ’chance’ is a Ring-Out.

Submission is openly accepting defeat."

"Finally...this goes without saying, but, killing is not allowed. Though I doubt any of you

have reasons to kill each other."

Most of them looked on at each other, slight chills running through their bodies.

“No way would I want to kill my classmates,” they thought to themselves.

"Now, let's take a look at the tournament brackets-"

WEST SECTION

Jamal Sanjuro Vs. Kento Yamaguchi

Kinshi Yamaguchi Vs. Zeke Sanjuro

Gina Sanjuro Vs. Amira Sanjuro

Ilmar Sanjuro Vs. Namiyo Yamaguchi

EAST SECTION

Genki Sanjuro Vs. Galib Sanjuro

Satoru Yamaguchi Vs. Akiro Sanjuro

Tarik Yamaguchi Vs. Haruo Sanjuro

Maki Kirishima Vs. Saki Kirishima

On large, rectangular screens placed on the Northern and Southern walls of the

Colosseum were displayed the Tournament Brackets. With 16 participants, there would

be a total of 8 matches in the first round. The competitors all looked on their matchups,

and looked back at the people they would be fighting.

"These pairings..." Jamal examined.

"The stronger persons are paired up together...that’s a relief. At least I don’t have to worry

about people like Satoru, Akiro, Namiyo or one of those twins kicking my butt at the start,"

Tarik thought as he sighed a sigh of relief.

"Well, that's that for now. You can all return to the waiting center and prepare

yourselves. We will commence the matches in 10 minutes!” Katashi announced.

As all the Trainees headed back to their waiting centers, all focused on their matchups,

some took a seat waiting patiently while some paced back and forth. In the Eastern

waiting area was Tarik, nervous for his match, until his opponent came to talk with him:

“You’re nervous…aren’t you?” Haruo asked him. He was about almost four inches taller

than Tarik with a slightly muscular build. His area of expertise was Ranged Combat,

being moderately skilled at throwing objects.

This wasn’t a bad matchup for Tarik, as he wasn’t a close-range fighter, but he was still

quite nervous to actually have to fight.

“Yeah…I’ll admit, Haruo. I’m feeling a little nervous.” – Tarik and Haruo weren’t really

acquainted; this was their first proper conversation.

Haruo, however, was a little extra cautious about Tarik; he remembered that night

almost two years ago, the unrivalled power that burst out from within Tarik, and how

powerful he was in that moment. This was mostly in the back of his mind, but the very

thought still had him on his toes: what if he mastered even a fraction of that power?

What exactly did he learn from Steffan?

Nevertheless, he regained his courage and declared to Tarik:

“You’ve gotten stronger, and I’m looking forward to fighting you, but I don’t intend on

losing!” he asserted as he gave Tarik a thumbs up.

“Alright, neither do I!” Tarik responded, feeling a little less nervous.

Meanwhile, the twins Maki and Saki who were nearby each other sat in discouragement.

They were similar in height, both being of slim builds and having pink shades of hair.

They weren’t crazy about the idea of fighting each other.

*sigh*

“Why’d they do this?” Maki asked herself miserably.

“I know…and it’s not like I could beat you either, Sister,” Saki responded.

“You need to stop doubting yourself, Saki…you’re just as strong as I am. I just don’t see

the merit in fighting with my Sister, it’s not like we’re competing with each other.”

Over in another corner were Genki and Galib, individually practicing their use of melee

weapons. In another corner sat Satoru in meditation. Akiro watched him, admiring his

usual discipline, as he thought about their planned match,

"This one’s gonna be quite the fight. Still...I don’t plan on giving up easily..."

Over in the Western waiting area, things were less gloomy, mainly thanks to the

presence of Ilmar, Gina, Amira, and Zeke. Only Jamal, Kento, and Namiyo remained

rather silent, and thought about how they would go about their matches. Jamal in

particular was trying to strategize:

"Kento will be a tough fight...I think one of the best things to do first is get rid of the

opponent’s connector...but, the problem will be having to maintain dominance."

As he was lost in thought, his brother Ilmar snapped him back into reality with a

forehead flick:

“Oi, your brain’ll rot before you start fighting at this rate,” Ilmar teased him.

“S-Sorry…I’m just, thinking.”

Looking around at Kento, Kinshi, Namiyo, and Zeke, Ilmar openly declared to his

brother in front of everyone:

“Listen…you’re gonna fight me today, Jamal!”

Hearing that, the 4 others looked at Ilmar in displeasure. Kento remained silent, while

the others expressed disagreement:

“Hmph,” Namiyo muttered.

“Hey, are you saying he’ll beat me? Aren’t you a little too confident in that shrimp?”

Kinshi asked in astonishment.

“Who said he’ll be fighting you? Who decided you’re losing to me?” Zeke asked him with

a high look.

“Get over yourself, meathead,” Kinshi clapped back at Zeke.

Chuckling at their responses, Ilmar asserted once more saying,

“Like I said, he’ll be fighting me in the Semi-Finals. No ifs or buts about it.”

“You don’t have to completely ignore our fight, Brother,” Gina responded to Ilmar,

rolling her eyes.

“Only an idiot like you would think they can beat me,” Amira teased Gina; the two were

rivals.

“Nobody asked, flat chest!” Gina took shots at Amira’s features.

“N-Not everyone likes an ugly witch like you!” she defended.

“can the two of you shut up already…”

At this time, there was a pause in the music that was playing; 10 minutes were up, and

Katashi was about to announce the first match!

“Okayy everyone, it’s the time you’ve been waiting for! The Hunters’ Tournament

officially begins now!”

As cheering filled the entire Colosseum, the Trainees all looked toward the entrance to

the fighting ring, as the first match was about to be announced.

"I wonder who’ll be first..." Tarik thought to himself.

“Now! The first match of the day will be…”

“…Jamal Sanjuro, Kento Yamaguchi!”

As applause filled the air, the two fighters stood up; Kento grabbing his sword, as he was

a Swordsman, and Jamal clenching his fist in front of him, looking at his opponent

nervously.

At that moment, his brother Ilmar touched him on the shoulder, and said to him:

“You’ve got this.”

Looking over to his sister Gina, she looked back at him and encouraged with a smile:

“You can do it, Little Brother!”

Hearing these words, his calm was returned, and he approached the gate with Kento,

and walked into the arena.

As they walked, the crowd cheered on, and Katashi gave brief descriptions of the

fighters:

“Wielding a sword, at 12 years old we have Kento Yamaguchi, who is actually a

descendant of one of the 5 Ancient Clans! Walking next to him, at the tender age of 10,

we also have Jamal Sanjuro, and believe it or not…he’s none other but the youngest son

of Gadō-sama! Make some noise as they approach the ring!”

The audience’s cheers got a little louder when they heard that the young boy was one of

the Heads’ sons.

Watching their son, Gadō and Miri were well pleased with his growth. Miri was still

wary, however:

“Will he really be fine, dear?”

“Don’t worry…he won’t disappoint us,” Gadō reassured.

Fūdo and Emir were also interested to see how this match would go,

“Up against someone who’s got Kaneko blood within them…I wonder if he’ll be alright,”

Emir wondered.

“I doubted that kid once when he was just born…after seeing him last week, I don’t think

I’ll doubt him again.” - Fūdo established his confidence in his younger brother.

By this time, they were now in the fighting ring, facing each other from the East and

West. Tarik was looking on through the waiting area’s entrance, although monitors

were inside the areas to watch from. He was anxious to see how his friend would

perform:

"Jamal…you better win!"

Katashi then started to address them, re-enforcing the rules:

“Now, as I explained earlier, to win you will need to insert your connector into the

designated slot. Once the match begins, your connector will be teleported from its place

to right in front of you.”

“Remember, inserting into the wrong spot will result in your opponent’s victory. If both

connectors have left the ring, it will become a Last-Man Standing. If a player gets a Ring-

Out while at least one connector remains, his opponent has 10 seconds to place his

connector.”

“…Ready?”

There was silence; the music had stopped, and the crowd became silent as mice. Jamal’s

heart was thumping fast within him, but he retained his focus. As the fighters assumed

their fighting stances, Katashi lifted his hand, and within a moment, he shouted:

“GO!!”

Immediately, their connectors appeared in front of them. Grabbing on to his, Jamal put

up a guard, while Kento charged straight at him with his sword drawn, leaving his

connector in its place.

"This guy...my instincts were right, he plans to fight me before anything else!"

Within seconds, Kento closed the distance between them, and jumping into the air, he

threw his sword straight at Jamal, who swiftly evaded by side-stepping.

"Huh? Why’d he-"

!!

Caught off guard by the fact that Kento threw his weapon, he looked back up toward

Kento who was pulling a small sword off his back, ready to strike Jamal.

"I was careless; I completely forgot about that second sword he always carries!"

Instinctively, Jamal quickly pulled out the sword lodged into the floor, and used it to

block the attack. Jumping away, Kento flashed his blade and complimented Jamal,

“You have nice reflexes, Jamal. Good intuition too.”

"He hasn’t really talked to me or Tarik for a while...ever since we started training," Jamal

noted, as he dropped the long sword to the side; he wasn’t skilled at Armed Combat, let

alone using a sword.

“You could’ve just plugged in your connector from the start. Why do you want to fight

that badly?”

Remaining silent for a moment, Kento slowly began to open up to Jamal.

“The two of you have been improving so much lately…even though you guys were so

hopeless, so many people still stretched out a hand to help you stand up.”

“Watching both of you grow these past months, it feels like you’re outdoing almost

everyone…just flying by on the highway, without a care.”

Confused by Kento’s words, Jamal almost forgot they were fighting.

“What are you talking about, Kento? You suddenly stopped talking to Tarik and I,

without much of a reaso-“

“Why is it that everyone’s so infatuated with you two?” Kento asked, cutting him off.

“My own relative…Steffan-san, he spends more time helping out a nobody than me!

Why?!”

These words got on Jamal’s nerves, and he dashed towards Kento who was back on

guard as well, swinging his sword at Jamal who dodged and blocked with his connector.

“I was interested in you guys too…but, all you did was hog everyone else’s attention!

Nobody even cares about the rest of us besides guys like Ilmar, Akiro, or Satoru!!” Kento

ranted as he recalled the cheering earlier when Jamal was announced to be Gado’s son.

As he swung his sword at Jamal, his anger began to cloud his mind, and a window

opened for Jamal to disarm him of his sword.

Now able to engage in proper hand-to-hand combat, Jamal dropped his connector and

started attacking Kento, while he declared to him:

“Don’t be ridiculous, Kento! You were born strong, like many others are! Why are you

jealous over someone like me or Tarik who was born weak? If I were you right now…”

As he gained the upper hand on Kento, he kicked him back, and dashed toward him to

deliver the final blow-

“I’d be happy to see my weak friend become strong!” he shouted as he delivered a heavy

punch to Kento’s face, knocking him flat to the floor.

Upon seeing this, Ilmar smiled inside the waiting area, seeing that Jamal no longer held

back on his punch.

Tarik also, after seeing that, yelled in excitement for his friend:

"Heck yeah!! Awesome Jamal!"

However, the fight was still not over; Kento was still conscious on the floor, but Jamal

was already approaching the center of the stage with his connector.

As he drew near, he noticed that the connector was slightly being pulled, like a magnet.

Kento caught a glimpse of this as he was standing up.

!!

“Here’s my chance!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kento bolted to where he left his connector, and upon

grabbing it, chucked it full speed toward the center of the ring. When he saw this, Jamal

started running to the center.

"Did he notice the magnetic pull? This isn’t good, it’s highly likely that it could snap right into

place when it gets close! In that case...!"

In that moment, Jamal clenched his fists tightly, and jumped toward the center while

shouting:

BODY REINFORCEMENT! · 身體強化 (Shin-tai Kyō-ka)

With a boost in physical strength for a brief moment, Jamal jumped toward the

approaching connector and kicked it into the air! As it descended, it landed outside the

fighting ring, and Jamal placed his connector into its rightful place.

“Winner: Jamal Sanjuro!”

The audience went wild, and everyone cheered on the young boy for his spectacular

victory. The Trainees all looked on at his victory, and were really impressed.

“Hmph, not half bad.”

“I told him he’d win.”

“Alright! That’s my little brother!”

“WAY TO GO, JAMAL!!!”

“What was with Kento? He really lost his focus.”

“You can say that again.”

Before leaving the stage however, Jamal approached Kento and extended a hand to help

him up, saying,

“If I had really hurt you…I’m sorry, Kento. But, you’re still my friend.”

Remaining silent for a while and looking down, he eventually accepted Jamal’s hand,

and responded:

“Forgive me, Jamal,” he beseeched as a tear streamed down his face.

“It’s ok,” he reassured as they walked toward the waiting area.

Immediately moving on to the next fight, Katashi announced to the audience,

“What an amazing first victory! And now, for our next match…”

“…Ilmar Sanjuro, Namiyo Yamaguchi!!”

**TO BE CONTINUED**