Yellow-black bolts of lightning snaked into the void around the three beings.
Booms. Bangs. Badooms.
Explosions after explosions shook the earth as the pieces of moon that had survived Black's wrath fell, leaving behind a fiery trail in the sky.
It didn't matter if this world had forests, cities, people, or animals.
Everything was bound to be annihilated as red darkness overtook the starlit sky.
Black couldn't think properly.
He looked at the man hunched over with his knees on the ground and couldn't help but shake his head, tears falling with such a conviction as if they had gained sentience.
He wanted to shout.
He wanted to curse.
He wanted to… kill this man. Right here. Right now. Right at this moment.
Why must he be alive? Why must he exist? Why must he smile like that? Why… when his mother had suffered everything and then died a horrible death? Just why?!
"Cough…" Alan Stormborn coughed out the wetness in his throat. Even if he had buried the mysteries within… to injure his physical form… "You… Do you want to kill me or what?!"
The man was huge.
Even though he was kneeling, his head down, Alan's short, white hair reached Black's chest easily.
With his thick, bronze muscles painting a demonic picture on his body, and the veins slithering under the skin like millions of rivers, he didn't look like a scientist at all.
Alan rubbed his stomach and looked down.
He winced.
There were scars on his body that would have put Kai's body to shame.
Regardless of those scars, and their sources, one could spy a purple bruise, taking the form of a spiral with tight curls right under his chest.
From the other side, the Sorting Hat, as the brown-robed figure, leaned and looked at the scar. "Wow…" it exclaimed, flicking the rim of its hat. "… That's something…"
Neither Alan nor the Sorting Hat bothered about the destruction of the planet or the lost moon.
Alan Stormborn looked up and met Black's eyes. "Didn't Edith tell you…"
…
Something snapped within Black. "Don't… you dare… take her name…"
The Sorting Hat, who had been casually standing by their side, turned its head toward Black, the yellow blobs of light under its hat landing on the space behind him. Its body shook. In the next moment, making no noise, the brown-robed figure popped out of existence.
The Sorting Hat appeared on Alan's head.
Now, Alan too looked beyond Black. His hazel eyes trembled. Whatever he saw there… must have been utterly terrifying for even him to feel so off.
"Alright. Alright…" Alan got up, patting his stomach and then the hat. "Calm down."
Black took a deep breath and stepped away.
"Where are you going?" Alan asked, stunned.
"I don't need your help, or you," Black said, turning around. "Send me back to Hogwarts. We are done here."
Alan raised an eyebrow. He put the cigar in his mouth, took a giant puff, and blew out the smoke. "Brat…"
Black looked over his shoulder. "What did you say?!"
"Brat…"
"…"
"What? Act like a brat, and you will be called a brat," Alan said, shrugging his shoulders.
Black gritted his teeth. After all this time; after thousands of years. He had never imagined if he ever met his father it would be like this; with these emotions.
Alan sat down on the ground, crossing his legs.
A huge barrel of sake appeared in his hand. He gulped half of it down in a single go, burped, and put the rest in front of him.
"Come over here, brat," he said, flicking his finger toward Black. "Sit here. Have a drink with your old man."
Black closed his eyes, his tears evaporating. He took a deep breath, turned around, and sat down in front of his father, crossing his legs.
When he opened his eyes, their gazes met.
Alan didn't say anything, but it was obvious he was waiting for Black to drink the rest of the drink.
It was truly an odd sight, though.
Meteors were still falling like red drops of fire, passing overhead. The word was afire, redness crawling up from the distant horizons. The sky was getting darker and darker, taking an ominous shade.
And right between all this, the pair of father and son sat with half a barrel of sake between them.
Black snatched the barrel, tilted it over his mouth, and gulped it down in one go, too. Somehow, he just didn't want to lose to this man; no matter how small or big the thing it was!
Unfortunately, it turned out to be a mistake.
Tink-Tunk!
The empty barrel of sake slipped off Black's hand and rolled down on the earth.
Black looked at his father.
"Sorry…" Alan frowned. "Even though your Source is the same as my son, you are still an Item. If you don't make it alive, Kai will understand. I guess." He scratched his beard as if he wasn't sure himself.
On the other side, Black had fallen into an abyss.
An abyss of pain.
Pain…
Pain…
Pain…
Black's back arched as his feet left the ground, making him hover above the earth. Then he howled.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."
…
[
Quality: 95% (-3%)
…
Quality: 90% (-5%)
…
Quality: 75%(-15%)
…
]
…
And it kept falling and falling…
Black's howl went beyond agony, the Ad Infinitum utterly failing to suppress even the physical pain. Much less needed to be said about the emotional and spiritual ones.
Cra-ck-kk!
Yellow-black bolts of lightning oozed out of Black as his Conqueror's Haki ran wild involuntarily for the second time within a few moments. It circled him as if wrapping him within a Supreme Haki Cocoon.
Alan Stormborn took another puff of the cigar and blew out the smoke.
No matter how you looked, it didn't seem Black would survive this ordeal. Not with his Quality dropping at such a rate.
However, just as the Quality reached 50%, a stupendous change occurred around Black; within Black.
The Cocoon of Supreme Haki crumbled.
Bolts of lightning seeped inside Black one after another.
Then, little by little, his Quality began rising, defying all logic.
…
[
Quality: 53% (+3%)
…
Quality: 58% (+5%)
…
Quality: 73%(+15%)
…
]
…
And it kept rising and rising…
"Hahaha!" Alan laughed boisterously. "Amazing! Your body is truly something… It digested the drink before you could die… Hahaha! See!" he flicked the rim of his hat. "I told you, didn't I? That's my son!"
The Sorting Hat's mouth opened like a fold, and it mumbled, "You just called him an Item…"
Alan, of course, ignored the stupid hat.
On the other side, Black's Quality had reached 97%, where it stopped. But one thing was clear, even though none said it.
This 97% was much much better than Black's original 100% could have ever been.
"We don't have much time and we still have many things to take care of," Alan said, smiling. "You don't know what kind of hornet nest you have stirred up outside. You don't know what kind of weaklings are coming after you."
Black landed on the ground, shaking.
He had changed. He felt different. He was different.
…
[
Advance Selfless Breathing: 100% (+40%)
Congratulations Contestant Kai Stormborn
Your Advance Selfless Breathing has leveled up to become Master Selfless Breathing
…
Master Selfless Breathing: 2% (+2%)
]
…
**************
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