Owari woke up early in the morning today, it was quite an important day after all. Today Owari would be graduating from school and could officially be considered an adult and go on with his life. Of course, the ceremony itself meant little to him. It was merely a formality. What did matter for Owari was that he could finally be done with his school life and begin his real life from now on. He quickly got out of bed and made his way over to his desk where he picked up a set of clothes that he quickly threw on. It was a simple set of formal wear with a plain white shirt, black slacks, black socks, and a nearby pair of buckle shoes. It was a very old style of formal dress, but this was the standard and few would go out of their way to change it since it was how things had always been.

After getting all of these things on, Owari walked over to his wardrobe and opened it up to take out the only piece of clothing hanging inside. It was a robe that had been modified from a traditional eastern haori. It had belonged to Owari's father who had been quite traditional. Owari had inherited it early when his father died and had worn it all his life since. Since he got it when he was young he had made some changes to keep it comfortable over time. For one he had it lengthened and it now reached his ankles, and it was a bit thicker with some pads making it both more resistant to wear and tear as well as making it warmer.

Owari put on the large coat and folded it over before tying it off. Unlike the other graduates who would wear the school given robes for graduation, he had requested to wear this one. Of course, it had been a pain to get permission, but it was worth it since it was one of the only things he received from his father and by wearing it he could feel as if his father was also there to watch him. Owari walked out of the room in his full outfit and made his way through the house. Before he managed to make it out however and as he was standing by the door he heard someone call from behind him.

"You've got everything right?" It was a beautiful voice, and it belonged to his mother.

"Of course, I don't really need anything anyway." Owari turned around and gave his mom an amused glance as she stared at him with worry and pride.

"Right, I'm just being a bit of a worrywart huh? Who would have thought you would grow so fast?" She laughed and did her best to dispel her worry.

"It took my whole life to reach this point. It doesn't feel fast to me." Owari chuckled a bit as he watched his mother try to calm down.

"Right. You look just like your father wearing that outfit." She smiled with a hint of melancholy.

"You know we have some photos of dad around the house right? Even if I only recall him a bit from my own memory I know what he looks like. We don't look that alike." Owari didn't take his mother's words seriously.

His father was a descendent of the eastern tribes and so he had yellowish skin, sharp features, black hair, and grey eyes. However, he was also quite muscular and a bit taller than average giving him a strong feeling. Owari on the other hand inherited just enough from his mother to ruin all the good his father had given him. He also had black hair, sharp features, and grey eyes. However his skin was a paler shade then his fathers which just made him look sickly, combined with his average height and slim frame and he looked like a breeze would knock him over dead any second. Not that there was any chance of that happening considering his toughness that contrasted his actual appearance greatly.

"I suppose it might be a bit of a stretch to say you look like him in terms of appearance. But I meant your bearing. You have the same confidence and standoffish feeling as he did." She smiled warmly as she watched Owari shake his head in annoyance.

"It's not like I want to look like some delinquent. Anyway, I'm heading off, see you at the ceremony." Owari waved goodbye as he rushed out the door.

Owari didn't bother waiting for a reply and started walking soon after getting out the door and into the streets. He immediately started walking towards the school grounds which would take about 10 or so minutes at a casual pace. It actually took him a few moments walking to get used to the lightness of his step. Normally he would have weights on him for his personal training, but the school told him he wouldn't be allowed to wear them during the ceremony so he had to leave them behind. Because he wore them every day it was actually hard to get used to not having them so suddenly. Owari was lucky he had such good balance and coordination and he quickly adjusted himself before looking around at the surroundings to pass the time.

The various homes in the area were all relatively ordinary, one or two stories with a porch and front yard surrounded by a fence. The area he lived was actually pretty high class, luckily his mother was very frugal and knew how to make use of money which let them keep the house his father bought them and live a bit outside their means all this time. His father had been a hunter and had managed to make some decent money by risking his life fighting magical beasts to save up and buy their current home. From what Owari heard his father had done this to display how serious he was when he wanted to wed his mother. His mother told the story like some romance, and Owari always found it cheesy but he wouldn't ruin such a good memory of his mother's by saying it.

He quickly made his way down the road towards school, he was even a bit faster than expected due to his light steps. This put Owari in a good mood since it confirmed his hard work and training really had results, even if it was something small. He walked into the large brick building and made his way through the various halls. By this time some other students in his graduating class had all managed to come into sight. The class itself was a bit small seeing as how Owari lived in a relatively small town, maybe a hundred students overall. However, he didn't know most of them and didn't care too.

Owari was a bit of a loner and didn't really pay much heed to his classmates as he made his way to the sports field outback where the ceremony would take place. When he arrived he quickly took his seat in his designated position and looked around. Of course, he was one of the only students actually seated, the rest were busy talking with friends and trying to contain their excitement. Owari became listless for a moment as he watched this. Even though he was a loner, even he had friends. However, as he looked around he caught sight of those friends off to one corner talking to each other. It was a guy and a girl, and they had been his neighbors since the three were little. They were considered inseparable by many despite the fact that none of the three had many shared interests.

Owari didn't let his sight linger on the two of them and quickly relaxed in his seat while thinking to himself. Honestly, Owari wasn't too broken up about what happened between the three of them, though he was certainly quite bitter. Among the three of them, there was him, Milly, and Lucas. A few weeks ago he had confessed his feelings for Milly, whom he had spent his entire life with and who he had cared for greatly over the years. In fact, most people had joked the two were like a married couple as they looked out for one another and were even closer to each other than to Lucas. However to his surprise and likely many others she had turned him down. This on its own might have left Owari depressed but he could get over it. Unfortunately, within a few days, she went and confessed to Lucas, who accepted it without hesitation despite knowing how Owari felt and what had happened between the two.

Lucas was a very handsome guy with a lot of charisma, and he also had a bright future in front of him having already received some invitations to some hunter agencies due to his inherently large mana reserves. Because of this, he was a bit of a prodigy of sorts, and he used this to get into the pants of half the girls in their graduating class alone not to mention their seniors and juniors. Owari was fully aware of this, and while he didn't like it he was willing to overlook it on the singular condition that Lucas never tried anything with Milly since she was someone who could be considered a bit naive and who was an ardent believer in pure love and saving oneself for marriage and all that other stuff.

Owari glanced over at them again unconsciously as he thought such things and saw Lucas holding Milly by the waist and pulling her close. He couldn't help but give a bitter smile and look at them with pity. One of the reasons he never objected to Lucas' shenanigans was simply because he believed one should be responsible for their own lives, not to mention Lucas wasn't as secretive as he believed he was. All of those girls were mostly aware of one another, they just silently accepted it in the hopes of getting in his good books so he'd take them with him when he moved on from this small town. To Owari, if these girls were okay with being nothing but toys to be used by someone else then they didn't value themselves enough for him to try and help.

As for Milly, while he was more inclined to help her, he decided not to. Not to mention how bitter he was about the rejection and her subsequent running off with Owari's at the time best friend, he also believed he had helped her enough throughout their lives. After the rejection, he realized she had grown to see him as a safety net. To her, Owari was someone who would always be there to help her no matter what. However he had his own life to live, how could he spend the rest of his life looking out for someone else who would never love him? Owari had other plans in mind even before he confessed to her. With her rejection, he could go on with life. Now that Lucas had stabbed him in the back and Milly had run off with his best friend, Owari could cut ties with his past. From now on the three of them had no relation, they were strangers in his mind.

Having reconfirmed his feelings, Owari relaxed a lot and finally settled his heart. Although he might seem a bit heartless for treating people he once called friends this way, he couldn't be blamed. Not only had they all drifted apart and become radically different and possibly even incompatible with one another, they had already broken his heart and threw it in the trash. He had lost interest in them, and as someone who had always been a loner of sorts, this meant he would no longer put them in his mind. He may suffer from this series of events for a long time, but he had already taken the first steps towards moving on.

That being the case he simply waited in his seat as time ticked by while he thought of what he would do in the future. Having turned 16 and graduating he would be considered an adult in society. That meant he would need to start looking after himself, though he could likely take advantage of his mother's kindness to squeeze out some more time before he really took responsibility for his own life, it wasn't really his style. He preferred not to procrastinate and so he would get to work immediately. After today he would pack his stuff and within three days he would have everything ready. Then he intended to move to the closest city and start his new life as a hunter. Hunters were people who went out and killed magical beasts both to ensure people's safety as well as to make money by taking the special materials inside their bodies to sell. It was a dangerous but decently lucrative job for people with some level of ability.

As he was thinking, many of Owari's classmates started sitting down under the instruction of their school administrator. He was an older man who was currently making his way around the students, next to him was a deer-like creature with two sets of antlers. This was a magical beast known as a four-pronged deer, and it was relatively low in level. To many of the students here though it was scary enough to be a deterrent towards causing a fuss. As for why it was here in the middle of town acting so docile, that was because it belonged to the old man it was accompanying. In this world after reaching 16 years old a person can use a special technique to bind a magical beast to them using mana and branding it on the beast in one of many ways.

These people are called tamers, and while most people can become tamers quite easily it was actually hard to obtain a magical beast and tame it. Doing so was pivotal towards becoming a hunter for a number of reasons, the least of which being how helpful it is to have a companion to watch your back. However, everyone has a limit on what they can tame, which is dependent on your mana and how strong your body is. The more mana you have and the stronger your body the more you can handle the pressure that comes from binding a magical beast to you. This is why someone like Lucas was so highly valued by a hunting agency, while someone like Owari who looked sickly and had above-average mana at best was overlooked.

Soon enough all the students were seated and not too long after the families all started to file in. Owari zoned out at this point and just started to reconfirm everything he had planned as he listened to the old man drone on about pride and whatever else. Owari never cared for formalities or anything like that and based on how the other students acted they felt the same. At some point names started to get called and eventually it was Owari's turn. He stood up and walked down the aisle, arriving quickly despite not having rushed. He shook the administrator's hand and listened to the words of encouragement given to him before taking his diploma and turning to the crowd. He bowed slightly and walked off stage and back to his seat without fanfare.

Some people gave his outfit a curious glance but nobody seemed all that bothered by it. Nobody was really close enough to Owari to care enough to ask, and nobody felt he was being given unfair treatment since his outfit wasn't all that different from theirs. Besides nobody here cared enough to question it. Soon enough everybody had received their diplomas, Lucas had caused a small scene as the administrator gave him a moment to give a short speech since he was their classes president. Owari was too busy thinking and missed it, just like he missed basically every other part of the ceremony so far.

After what seemed like forever the ceremony was finished and the students were allowed to leave with their families and begin their life as an adult. Owari stood up and began to walk out of the sports field without hesitation. He had no interest in wasting more time here, it was already noon and he had some stuff to do before he left town. Not to mention he wanted to spend his last days here with his mother since he knew he might not see her again for a while and he didn't want to leave her just like that. But as he made his way to the exit he saw Lucas and Milly waiting around with some others in their company. Unfortunately, Owari had been sitting in the farthest seats from the exit and so many people could easily reach the exit first leading to the current circumstances. However, as if he didn't at all see them, and not even sparing them a glance, he continued to walk by.

"Hey Owari, are you really going to give us the cold shoulder again? Isn't this supposed to be a special day for all of us?" Lucas stepped into Owari's path to stop him. His tone seemed arrogant, but honestly, it was just how he was. He probably didn't mean anything by it.

"It's just a ceremony, nothing special about it. As for giving you the cold shoulder, I made it clear the other day that I'm just going about my life. I have no reason to give you the cold shoulder." Owari stopped and smiled lightly as he responded.

"You talk like we are strangers." Milly also stepped over, her voice was quite warm and sunny.

"Aren't we?" Owari continued to smile without showing any other emotion. Most people might think he was putting on a front, but Milly and Lucas knew that he only smiled like that when he was angry.

"We've known one another since we were kids. How could we be strangers?" Lucas asked as if Owari wasn't making sense.

"What is my favorite thing to do in my free time?" Owari answered with a question.

"Working at the smithy." Milly responded without hesitation.

"Working out." Lucas answered only a breath slower.

"Both wrong. I work at the smithy to raise money, and I work out my body as training since I want to be a hunter. My real favorite hobby is practicing my swordsmanship." Owari shook his head, they had only guessed those since that was what he spent most of his time doing.

"Isn't that just a form of working out?" Lucas said halfheartedly, as if he was obviously close enough.

"Sure." Owari shrugged and continued walking past them. "I'm busy now though so I can't really talk." He didn't bother arguing with them.

"Wait a second!" Milly spoke up. "We were all going to go and eat something. Why don't you come along?" She stepped in his path again to stop him.

"Unfortunately I have some stuff to do." Owari sidestepped her and easily weaved between her and Lucas as if they weren't even there. By the time they had realized how easily he had passed them and looked back he was already halfway into the door leading into the school despite it being a dozen feet away. Like always he was like a ghost, moving as if nothing else was there and like nothing could stop him.

While the two looked at one another with bitter smiles and heavy hearts, Owari made his way out towards the front entrance and then towards home. Of course, he knew they still had some lingering attachment to him due to their childhood, but he didn't care. You can't just control your emotions, he was bitter and more than a little angry. His last consideration towards these friends of his was to end things here and forget about the past. Otherwise he'd just grow to hate them and become bitter. In time he was sure they'd either forget about him or come to understand why he did what he did. As for how their relationship ends up, he couldn't care less. Whether they break up, work out somehow, or die in a ditch, it no longer concerns Owari.

So he just kept walking until he got home, he immediately put on some casual clothing; a brown T-shirt and some cargo pants, along with a pair of sneakers. After that he put on his weights, which consisted of some forearm guards, calf guards, and a vest with a bunch of weight slots. The slots are small foot-long inch thick spaces where you can insert weights. Not only did these allow for adjustable weight, the weights could also serve as protection if they are made of sturdy material. The current weight Owari has placed inside all of the various pieces was around 90 kg, which caused Owari to weigh around 180 kg with his own weight included. After getting the weights on, Owari put on his coat which he kept open instead of tying it together like he had for the ceremony. This was how he usually wore it, but he had to make concessions to wear it during the ceremony.

After getting that sorted he started to pack his stuff. He didn't have much, just a few pairs of clothing, some health care stuff like a toothbrush and hairbrush. He finished that pretty quickly and made his way out of the house. His mother knew he was leaving in a few days, so she didn't stop him from getting things sorted first. After all, the quicker he finishes the more time they have at the end to spend together. After leaving he went straight towards the edge of town away from his house. On the far side was a house that had a chimney with smoke billowing out. From inside came clanging noises indicating that this building was a smithery. Owari walked over and entered the building as if it was his own home without any hesitation. He walked through the familiar building and entered a back room and saw a middle-aged man with a hammer in hand banging on a piece of metal. Owari didn't interrupt him and simply waited for him to finish his work before speaking up. "I'll be leaving in a few days."

"I know." Was the response he got.

"Old man Francis, did you finish it?" Owari asked with some expectation.

"Just last night." Francis chuckled seeing the sparkle in Owari's eye. He stood up straight and went over to one corner of the room and lifted an item off a shelf that was covered in cloth.

"How'd it turn out?" Owari didn't rush to grab it.

"It turned out better than expected. The material was a bit hard to work but I managed somehow." He pulled the cloth off and exposed the item in question. In his hands was a katana of about three and a half feet in length including the grip.

Owari took it and closely examined it as he felt the balance. The blade was rather straight unlike some of the curvier katana, this was fine by Owari since it meant a longer reach. The grip was made of a pretty sturdy wood since it didn't have trouble even when he gave it a full strength grip. As for the appearance, the grip was covered with some kind of black leather, with dark grey colored handle wrapping. The guard is shaped like a scale and made of some kind of very dull grey metal, likely steel. However, the real centerpiece of the sword is the blade. The blade was made of a steel that had been formed in the gut of a magical beast.

Owari had gotten this piece of steel from his father who had hoped to make his own sword from it before his death. He had only recently found it actually. The steel is much harder and more resistant to wear and tear than normal steel. It also has a light orangish-yellow hue to it due to being infused with the stomach acids of a magical beast. The hamon that ran along the center was shaped in a powdery pattern. Overall the blade looked a bit off, the sickly color of the blade and the dull color scheme of the hilt and guard makes it appear rather unassuming. But this felt perfect for Owari who was quite similar. The balance was quite good as well and it felt good in his hand. Overall Francis had done an incredible job and Owari was satisfied with the sword. He gave it a swing or two and it felt quite good.

"Nice, how good is the blade?" Owari carefully inspected the edge.

"The edge is my best work, as for the durability I'm sure you'll find it satisfying. I even risked it and smacked it against my anvil and it only dulled the blade. As for my anvil, look for yourself." He gestured to the anvil, and looking at it Owari could see a nick in it at least a few inches deep. "Much better than normal steel."

"I like it." As Owari said this Francis handed him a sheathe which he quickly used to put the sword away. "I'll take good care of it." He put it on his hip and adjusted it to make sure it was secure.

"I hope so." Francis walked over and started to get back to work. "Now head on out, I'm busy."

Owari smiled and left, although Francis seemed cold and distant in reality he was just bad with this type of thing. He'd rather get it over with and have Owari leave then show any vulnerability. As for the relationship between the two, Owari had worked under Francis since he was 12. Francis hired Owari as his apprentice and had paid him to help out around here. Normally it would be difficult to get such a position, especially at that age. However Francis was friends with Owari's father and gave him a chance. After that Owari spent his entire childhood working in the forge and trying his best to pick up some skills. As a hunter, he would need to know how to maintain equipment, not to mention the physical training that came with the work. The weight bars in his training equipment were made of scrap metal with his own hands. As for the money he made from the job, he saved it in his bank account for his eventual use when he moved off to make his new life.