Some years later.
Human beings are flawed. They lie, they cheat, they kill. They fight to be morally just, but their natural animalistic instincts take priority; sometimes without them ever realizing it. Even with their supposed moral guidelines; religion, societal norms, law, they consistently deviate. They were bred and raised to rule, anything less than complete control is seen as an infirmity. An inadequacy.
So, did it come as any surprise when, in the immediate aftermath of the discovery of life on other planets, the first reaction was to control? To populate, and eventually preponderate through sheer numbers?
Seiji Higuchi was born into the war between Nivians and Humans. Even before he could properly analyze the context, the motivations were still very clear to him. If Nivians; his people, were to yield, there would be no future for them. If the Humans came out defeated, they could simply retreat to their homeland, and the war would only be a footnote in their history. This wasn’t a battle the Nivians wanted to fight; it is a battle they were required to fight, for the integrity of their homeland and the continued existence of their race.
An existential war. That’s what Seiji’s grandfather called it, as did many others.
It needed to be fought; more importantly, it needed to be won.
“Not everyone is going to telegraph their next attack. There will be people smarter than that, who know how to strike without a hint or assumption.” The words of Akuma, Seiji’s grandfather, engraved themselves in the boy’s ears.
“Well, yeah. I know that.” Seiji looked ahead. His grandfather stood behind him, then came around to face him.
He caught the boy with a swift backhand across the cheek. Seiji stumbled back; the strength of his grandpa was always overpowering, even against his own durability.
“Do you?” Akuma stepped forward again, and Seiji stepped out, attempting a left hook. For that, his gut met with Akuma’s knee. Collapsing to his knees, Seiji clutched his stomach.
“You’re too offensive.” With one hand, Akuma lifted the younger one to his feet. “Your defense will always outlast your offense. No defense, no survival.”
“Roger.” After wiping his lip, Seiji produced a smile and a thumb pointing upward, looking up to meet his grandfather’s brown oculars. “I thought you told me to move in for the kill, though.”
“Yes. Move in for the kill. They will try to kill you first, however, and you must anticipate this. You must be on the defense at all times, anticipating.”
“And then you incapacitate, not kill.”
That voice didn’t belong to either of them. A male, five feet, ten inches tall. About 160 pounds, an almost athletic build, black hair and brown eyes.
Seiji’s father, Okura Higuchi. A stoic, conscientious, and steadfast Nivian.
“You kill if you must, and since those monsters are always out to kill, you must always kill.” Akuma put it plain and simple.
“No.” Okura shook his head in disapproval. “The most crucial part to any martial art is restraint.”
Seiji looked between his father and his grandfather. Sometimes, he forgot they were son and father. They had very conflicting views on the war; how the Human race should be dealt with. Okura even loathed using the word “war”, settling with “conflict” instead. Ideologically, they were polar opposites. Okura’s line of work introduced him to a plethora of Humans, and he’s come to know them as good people. When asked about the Humans who do kill, Father refers to them as “bad apples on a good tree.”
Seiji loathed being caught in the crosshairs of their disputes, but he did gain knowledge from simply listening in. He wouldn’t dare to get involved or even remotely take a side, no.
“But you’re not training my son to be a martial artist, are you?” Okura challenged, stepping closer to his father.
“What are you insinuating?”
“You’re training Seiji to be some kind of murdering machine. You’re teaching him to know one thing only; death. Destruction.”
“Heh. The boy is choosing his own path.” Akuma jerked his shoulder to the side, then turning his back to Okura.
“You’re done for today, Seiji. Go back to the house and resume your academic studies.” Okura spoke sternly as his eyes burned into Seiji. He was in no mood to be opposed, and Seiji was in his right mind not to oppose him.
So, Seiji did as he was told. He stepped out of the dojo, which was located behind the Higuchi family manor. The afternoon sun shining down on his face, he could faintly hear the resumed argument of his two mentor’s as he made his way back to the manor.
Seiji’s feet guided him back to the library of the manor; where he conducted most of his academic studies. He preferred to study his martial arts, but he couldn’t disappoint his father by undermining the importance of intelligence.
Sitting down at one of the desk beside his own personalized bookcase, Seiji withdrew one of the workbooks; the book focused entirely on the traditional Nivian language. He had zero intention of studying any form of mathematics today, lest he wanted to fry his brain. Science always managed to put him to sleep, and he already studied history in his morning session.
Before he could even open the book, however, a distant knock behind him completely stole his attention. Turning in his seat, he stood up when he saw a familiar figure standing in the entrance way of the libary.
Miyako Kubota. Someone Seiji has genuinely known since birth, and probably his only friend. She hails from a village not too far away from Seiji, but still quite a trip. Like him, she was also an avid dweller of the martial arts, and a natural when it came to stealthiness.
“Saaaaageeeee!” She called out at a high pitch, her voice traveling across the large space that made up the library.
“Be quiet!” With his index finger over his lips, Seiji came towards the girl. “How’d you even get in here?”
“You guys leave that one door unlocked. All the time.”
“Which one?”
“Nice try.” Miyako grinned, twiddling her ears, per usual when mocking him.
“Alright, why are ya’ here, Koku? I’m kinda tryin’ to study right now.”
“Oh, sure you are.” They both knew that wasn’t the truth, and Seiji couldn’t fight back his chuckle in response.
“So, where are we going?”
That was always the question when Miyako popped up. Everything with her was an adventure, new ground to explore. One day, they could be exploring the odious confines of the sewers, and the next they’d be hiking up Mt. Kaarim. There was truly no way to guess where Miyako would bring him next, but his curiosity always pushed him forward.
So, there they were. Walking along the border of Central Sakai, edging on a checkpoint. Checkpoints were guarded by the Humans, on every border or entrance of their territory. They wielded big guns, huffing and puffing as they paced back and forth with a sense of authority.
“I learned something new today.” Miyako pressed her thumb to her cheek as she walked beside Seiji, the two of them gazing over to the checkpoint. They took cover behind some boulder, convenient, and simply watched on. “Human’s call their rotations days, months, and years. A year for them is 365 days, or 12 whole months.”
For everything Seiji skimmed over in his book, Miyako, more likely than not, had studied it tenfold. She had the dirty details on all things Human, all their cultures and ideals and rules.
“So, what would a year for us be, in months?”
“Six.”
“Nice. How’d you find all that out?”
“I snuck into one of the Human sectors and got into a school!”
“How’d you pull that one off?”
“Well,” Miyako shrugged her shoulders, taking on a smug indignation in her tone. “I’m just that good.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” Seiji nudged her lightly.
“I’m sneaking in again. You wanna come with?” Her volume lowered, gauging Seiji for a reaction.
“Uh… my dad would kill me.” He paused. “So, yeah, I’m coming with.”
---
“The sudden mist of emotions, the thrill that surges through my blood streams, the excitement of battle, it’s all what I love about fighting. I don’t care what, or who I’m really up against; it can be just about anyone, regardless of size, gender, or experience. I love to the feeling I get when I’m going against someone.
This excitement truthfully, is all I have going for myself. I’m not that smart, definitely not hardworking, I’m kind of worthless; but this battle...battle between the brawns is what separates me from the rest. Even if I know I’ll lose, I’ll throw my entire body into a fight, ‘cause this purpose, this thrill...is all I have going for myself.” - Kenzo Tomatsu
Located in a dirty neighborhood that looks to have been abandoned by the sane is Kenzo Tomatsu, who seems to be in a rather complicated situation. A situation that’s becoming too much of a burden for him to handle. He’s cornered, blocked off by a tainted wall with a mess of handwritten graffiti, on the face fronting side of the wall was a crowd of human military soldiers walking up towards him. The messages weren’t anything pleasant. The aura transversing through the air was rather heavy, making it difficult to breathe. Kenzo could’ve easily climbed up along the walls and made a new pathway for escaping, but this was his problem; the thrill of being trapped and having no choice but to brawl through fists was the only thing going through his mind. He stared at his opponents with a cocky smile that spoke a volume of words. His opponents all watched in frustration as, through their eyes, Kenzo seemed to be enjoying it all, as if this was all a game beyond his naive comprehension.
“Coming to our territory and creating a rift of trouble for your own personal gain…” One of the soldiers spoke in disgust as he looked upon Kenzo through the visors of his helmet. “It’s one of the reasons we cannot stand you people.”
“Right? Nivians, born with zero desire to respect anyone or anything.” Another soldier chimed in, shaking his head.
“You come in here to our land, take things away from us when we try to compromise…”
“It’s not ‘your land’, asshole.” Kenzo interrupted, his fist clenched. “It’s ours. In fact, this entire planet is ours. You’re just trigger happy tourist.”
“Let me tell you something, kid...” The first soldier rolled his eyes, stepping closer.
“Stop.” Kenzo put out his palm, shaking his head. “I don’t need any sort of lecture, seriously. I’m not doing this for the sake of my people or anything. I actually couldn’t care less.. “
“Alright, then you won’t care when we give you a little ass kicking, huh?” A smirk from the soldier.
With a grin plastered on his lips, Kenzo stepped forward. One of the soldiers attempted to fire their weapon, however, Kenzo grabbed the body of the gun and tilted it upward, letting the bullets rain into the sky. After this, he drove his leg into the kneecap of the soldier, dislocating it with relative ease. As a Nivian, he was significantly and naturally stronger than the rest of these vermin.
Kenzo advanced, tackling another hostile down after getting a firm grasp around his neck. As he mounted on top of the soldier, the Human attempted to gauge Kenzo’s eyes out. Trapping the scrawny man’s arm, the Nivian quickly snapped it out of place.
Standing up, he felt the bullets rain upon his back. Pathetic, was all that came to mind. The Humans relied on their primitive mechanics to take him down. The bullets only ricocheted off his body, as he turned around to face his opposers.
“Well, you tried.”
A sadistic smile made its home on the Nivian’s lips. He took the arm of the previously attacked soldier, ripping it completely out of its socket. Chuckling, he tossed the arm at another enemy, connecting with the chest and knocking the wind out of the soldier.
Three of them came at him. The first one swung wildly for a left. Kenzo, ducking, swept his legs out from under him and let his head slam into the pavement. The second one attempted to trap his arms into a “full-nelson” position. However, Kenzo jerked his head back, letting it collide with the soldier and cracking the Human’s skull wide open. The last one was going for the retreat, stepping backwards. He dropped his gun, turning on his heels and promptly sprinting away. Kenzo only watched, the nerving smile retaining on his face as he flexed his knuckles.
“I’m the type to move at my own beat, so I understand that it’s difficult to keep up with me.”
After incapacitating his opponents, Kenzo took off without cleaning up the evidence of his actions. He took in what had happened with a dastardly grin on his face. He pressed against his feet, preparing to take off with a giant leap towards a tall building. Kenzo didn’t get up there with ease, he climbed up through multiple platforms and maneuvered his way to the very top with precision and accurately timed slick movements. As he reaches to the very top he withdraws a pair of binoculars from his pocket and scans the area thoroughly.
“Not a lot of openings, huh?” He observed. Each checkpoint was heavily blocked off with multiple guards taking their position to protect it. Kenzo is dumb, and is usually willing to put himself at risk, but not if there’s a zero percent chance of him coming out above all the rest.
“This isn’t very good. They’re all on edge, and obviously my previous carelessness has them more alert than ever..”
He turns his head back, taking notice of the group of soldiers approaching the mass unconscious bodies that Kenzo took care of moments ago.
“This is what I get for going in without a proper plan…” He places the binoculars close to eyesight, making a distasteful grunting noise. It seems as if the only option would be to just go down there and cause more chaos, pray for the best, and make it out of the scene without dying.
As Kenzo places his foot on the ledge, preparing to leap off and let fate guide him wherever he may go, he comes to a complete pause. There’s something that catches his attention that causes his entire body to halt.
“Those people over there…” He whispered to himself. Humans? Upon further observation…
What he takes notice of is Seiji and Miyako. It didn’t take a genius to tell these two were not Humans. Besides that, while they were sneakily moving from checkpoint to checkpoint, they had unknowingly exposed themselves for a terrible attack.
“Is that what they call a date? I hope they wouldn’t mind if I interrupted it for just a moment.”
An air force helicopter hovers over the building Kenzo is on, spotting him instantly. Without warning, a beam of light is aimed down on him and a loud siren blares, alerting everyone in its vicinity. Quickly, Kenzo removed a grappling gun from his back pocket and fired it towards the wings of the helicopter, causing a massive eruption. The wings spun against the metal hook of the grappling gun, eventually breaking off and causing the rotorcraft to lose control.
“Cause and effect, assholes.” Kenzo let the grappling hook pull back in, as he would then return it to his pocket.
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