Chains Of Pride

"Hahahahaha is that them? A bit young, aren't they? And what is this? W-Wait a minute, are they already leaking the pressure of a Talium?! Takeshi just what have you stumbled onto here?"

On top of a building far away in Cendo Academy, stood who seemed to be in her late 20's watching the situation unravel.

She had long purple hair with grey eyes and a very shapely figure, her bosom was equally impressive, straining just to stay hidden in the skin-tight battle suit she wore, which showed a lot more skin than one would expect such a suit to show. She also had a small scar under her left eye, but this did little to take away from her beauty, which was city-toppling.

She turned her gaze to the man beside her before she continued, "and you're going to be dealing with them….those kids?"

The man who stood beside her slightly shifted his gaze from Kia and Lanzo to the woman beside him and asked in a stern and cold voice"Vizio, why are you here? I don't remember the organisation sending anyone this time around."

Vizio always had a tomboyish attitude, and when she heard his reply, she slapped his shoulder with a big smile on her face before responding, "So you don't want me here? I just finished fighting a Blite, when I finally heard that the legendary Hide Takeshi was lounging about at Cendo Academy. So I rushed here after finding out where you are, and after years of separation, that's what you say?"

Takeshi's expression darkened at this before raising his voice, saying "You make it sound like I'm the one who wanted to be exiled! And for what I did that caused that to happen, I regret nothing! I would do it all over again! Know what, forget it! I'm going to collect them!"

Takeshi took a step forward and was about to jump off the building, seeing this, Vizio opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. She only stared at his back as he vanished over the ledge, she only thought to herself 'Idiot! I would have even settled for a 'long time no see' jerk!' before she disappeared from their initial location as well.

Lanzo and Kia were still in their deadlock, the Shepherd noticed this and stopped talking quite some time ago. He as well as the other members of Proelius stopped whatever they were doing before and simply stared at the two, wanting to see what would happen, even Pelerion who was angry with Kia watched the strange situation without blinking.

Shepherd Akiu didn't think there was going to be an end anytime soon and was about to call out to Kia when a shout broke everyone out of their daze.

"Hokori Kia and Setamaru Lanzo I require your presence!" the one who spoke was naturally Hide Takeshi. Hide Takeshi was known at Cendo Academy as one of the most overbearing Shepherds, he was unyielding, uncompromising, extremely stern and in the words of the Digiums, a disciplined asshole. Therefore when they heard him call out to both Lanzo and Kia, a chill ran down everyone's back, thanking their ancestors they did not offend him.

"Heh, serves you right, Shepherd Hide will definitely not let you off for offending him" Pelerion was ecstatic when he saw Kia seemingly in trouble.

Captain Himiya seeing this bowed, was about to speak up when Shepherd Akiu at the side stepped in and greeted Takeshi "Ah Takeshi, if these two offended you in some way, I hope you can look past it. After all, young ones are known to be a bit presumptuous as I'm sure you know." Takeshi hearing Shepherd Akiu's request glared in his direction. Shepherd Akiu seeing felt his back being drenched in cold sweat, still, through a bit of effort, he kept the amicable expression on his face.

With this, Takeshi's severe bearing intensified when he heard this and replied, "Shepherd Akiu, I don't remember giving you the honour to refer to me by my first name."

"YOU!" Shepherd Akiu had heard of Takeshi's rigid personality through rumours, but he had never thought that he wouldn't give any face to a fellow Shepherd such as he. Seeing this Takeshi ignored the Shepherd and looked back to the two young men

"What did you not hear me? Get over here now!" Kia and Lanzo stared back at Takeshi before Kia coldly responded "who the hell are you to me but a Shepherd, you deserve no compliance from me while lacking knowledge of respect.

At this everyone's jaw dropped to the ground, not believing that someone would dare talk back to Shepherd Hide in such a manner. Shepherd Hide hearing this had a corner of his mouth slightly curl up in a rare smirk and commented "well well well, isn't the pride burning something fierce inside you already. And what about you Green Lantern, you've got something to say?"

Lanzo's expression changed at this before he said: "I see no value in holding a conversation with you, much less take action by your words." After saying this, he went silent once more

.

"Hehehe...'sighs'" at this, Shepherd betrayed his past countenance with an even rarer chuckle. However, he soon stopped and regained his austere air, shortly after his eyes flashed a grey light for but just a moment. He then released his pressure as a Talium and focused it onto Lanzo and Kia, when they felt it, their knees nearly buckled under the strain. Sweat started to wash their faces as they stared at the Shepherd ahead.

The feeling that kept their annoyances at bay with each other was somehow magnified here, it was palpable even, what flashed in their eyes was not fear but a sort of curiosity, a sudden need to know. Shepherd Hide then withdrew his pressure and turned around, walking away. were

Seeing this, Lanzo and Kia then turned to Shepherd Akiu and executed a final bow and wordlessly followed after Shepherd Hide. Because Takeshi's pressure didn't spread to anyone else, they were confused as to what happened.

Captain Himiya didn't stop Lanzo and let him go knowing that not much he did was without reason. As did Shepherd Akiu in regards to them both, though he was not pleased, it was a bit clearer based on their demeanour that they were not in trouble. They soon shook their head with a wry smile and continued on their way.

They eventually made their way to a mansion at the academy, one of the Shepherd's living quarters. At the entrance, he scanned his palm on the biometric scanner, then removed his glasses for the optical authorisation.

For the last step, the verification AI then uttered the statement "Pride and arrogance are the same" to which he replied saying "Arrogance is a foolish ignorance while pride is to know." The voice then stated, "Voice recognition is at 99.97% similarity, these parameters are unacceptable." He then turned irate and then nearly yelled the phrase once more, and hearing the increased tone and characteristic rage, it then said, "Voice recognition is at 100%, welcome Shepherd Hide."

He then looked behind him and gestured for them to enter which they did without a sound. "Take your shoes off, does this look like a dog house to you?" He said to them when he saw that they walked in unrestrained. They then followed his demand seeing nothing wrong with it and entered, and per his instructions made their way to his living room where they saw a familiar yet not so familiar face.

It was Syenasta Gero, who looked up at them and sure enough, the same feeling could be felt wafting from his as well. They were silently sizing each other up, after a while, Lanzo released a slight smile, Kia's expression softened and Gero nodded his head in the form of acceptance.

"Take a seat" directed Shepherd Hide who took a seat himself. He looked at them one by one before he stated "Now you're probably wondering why I had you all come here, now it's not because I like you, quite frankly, I hate you. This hate, of course, is not reserved solely for you three but teens, on the whole, I want you to know that I hate you all equally."

He paused for a moment, watching their non-changing expression before continuing "I assume you somewhat know each other so we'll forego the unnecessary introductions, so with that out of the way, go ahead and ask the question that's eating at you? Ask it wisely."

At that time, all three boys asked at the same time "What is this, what's going on?" Of course, the Shepherd unsurprised, corrected by them saying "the question shouldn't be what this is, but rather what are you."

"What are we?" Gero asked.

"Yes" continued Takeshi, "What are we."