Chains Of Pride

In an undisclosed location where darkness reigned. A monstrously large tower of a man was walking through a winding hallway. The deeper and deeper the man, the stronger the darkness became.

When he exited the hallway, he could tell he was in a spacious room, but nothing could be seen, not his hand in front of him nor the surroundings at all. Save for a small speck of light in the middle of the room that he sauntered up to.

Closely looking at his features, his body was covered in scars and his expression was brusque. The lines upon his face would have one offhandedly place him in the neighbourhood of being in his late 50's. His aged voice sounded out as he stood in front of the dim light to the still dark room.

"Sir Zhǔjiào, have you spoken to Lord Basileus; when are we going to take action? Those three brats, they are different from the rest of us. If we allow the organization to fully induct them, we won't have another chance."

"...Viceroy, I've already told you, we can't take any rash actions at this time. They are still in Cendo Academy even after so long. Their presence to the organisation has not been made known or rather, it's being covered up." A cold and unfeeling voice echoed out from within the darkness somewhere.

"Then this is a perfect time, we can ask Lord Basileus to take action since the organization is unaware." The viceroy stated.

"...We can't." There was silence for a while before the voice came again with this simple answer.

"Why not?!" His voice grated as he asked. "With them, our plans can move forward many times. If they are not with us, they will be our greatest obstacle given enough time." The older man reasoned.

The voice came again, as unfeeling as ever, but there was a slight tremor within, "Because the Academy where they are, and the person who's taken them in, is…Hide Takeshi."

The Viceroy staggered back a bit after he heard this name. A name that struck fear in not only his enemies but even his allies.

"Death's Hand Hide Takeshi, perhaps this needs more pondering. I-I'll go speak with Lord Basileus myself, hopefully, he has an idea to handle this." He turned around to leave when that same voice gave him pause.

"Don't bother, the lord is well aware as I'm sure you know and is in the midst of concocting a plan. We need only give him time." Zhǔjiào advised.

The viceroy did not turn around when he heard this, he only resumed walking when silence permeated the air. Once he reached the entrance to the hallway, even the dim ball of light was extinguished, bathing the entire area in a kind of darkness that was nigh unbearable.

....

Night was coming to an end, the first ray of the sun upon the horizon fought to banish the prevalent blanket of darkness across the land and sky.

Two bodies lay strewn across the desert-like ground. Heavy breathing could be heard as their c.h.e.s.t wildly rose up and down.

"Not bad, you managed to last the entire night. Your aura's a lot denser than it was prior too. A lot more polishing is needed, so we'll regularly do this until your foundation is as hard as-"

"A d.i.c.k...that's what you are." An exhausted Gero couldn't gulped down mouthfuls of air between words as he fired a barb at the Shepherd.

"Not the comparison I was going for, but whatever floats your boat you little snot. Now get up, let's head back to the mansion, I need to take a shower." Takeshi started to walk off without even looking back to see if they were following.

Before long, the door of the mansion slid open to reveal a relatively alright Shepherd and two miserable and haggard Digiums.

Lanzo and Gero staggered through the door as it slid shut with a whoosh.

"You two go and, I dunno, control your hormones or something, I need to check on Kia." They retreated to their rooms to wash off the grime from their bodies, and not pass out while they were at it.

Takeshi headed upstairs shortly after and headed to Kia's room when the door slid open. He saw a sleeping Kia and a sleeping Ayuki, however, the latter sat in a chair as her head rested on the bed to his side.

He tactlessly walked in despite the scene, and checked Kia's pulse and then injected his in'essence into his body to check his condition.

His brow rose in surprise, "Incredible! The vitality of his body is astounding and its endurance has skyrocketed." As he thought about this, he looked to the side where he saw Ayuki still asleep, when another thought came to mind, "I'll include you in the special training when you wake up too."

"Ayuki you can go to your room now."

Ayuki shuffled a bit before her eyes fluttered open, the first thing she saw through her hazy vision was Takeshi leaving the room.

"Mhhmmm..."

A lazy yawn escaped her lips as she looked at Kia who was still sleeping peacefully. She wordlessly left the room, heading to her own.

...

"Why has big brother not called me yet? He said he would hang out with me and still nothing. You know what? I'll just go find him"

"You're planning to leave this lady by herself? And after I put my research on hold to accompany you in yours." The mysterious lady who had Haru picked up at the teleportation hub said.

"Don't say that big sis, it's just that we don't get to spend a lot of time together. Besides, my research reached a bottleneck, so spending some time relaxing would be what I need. Yeah, this is in the name of research, for the sake of science I must spend time with my brother."

He shook his head in despondency as if the price he had to pay was much too high.

"Hmph, maybe I should have a word with this brother of yours. Word of him came from quite an unexpected source, so my interest in him has piqued somewhat." Her sweet voice floated over but it didn't sound sweet to him.

He ran over to her in a rush with nervousness written all over his face. "Big sis that's not fair, you can't do that! I'm supposed to be the one who hangs out with him!!"

She giggled when she saw his demeanour, which part of this was an 11-year-old genius seen once probably every 1,000 years even if that short?

"Fine, I won't encroach on your brother for now, but just send a message and wait for him to respond. Doesn't make sense for you to go to him and he's busy after all."

He appeared to be thinking for a moment, "You're right, that would be stupid I guess. Alright, I'll do that and get back to work for now. Anyways sis, do you think that once I finish my research I can enter the class above S-Class? "

The woman's expression turned grave when she heard this, "Haru, you shouldn't talk lightly about that. It's a tightly guarded secret, this level. As of now, it's only rumours and hearsay among the Digiums, even for us S-Class we only know it exists and that's it. We don't even know the name."

Above S-Class was another level, however, this level was hidden and obscured, kept from being known thanks to the upper echelon of the Academy. No one, not even the S-Class knew what the requirements were to enter this level, mysterious as it was.

"Well, I think this should be able to do it, allowing me to crack the mystery, subconscious brandishment will push humans forward one step forward." Haru's face beamed with confidence as he said this.

"What about that bottleneck of yours? If you're not able to grant control of the subconscious to the subject, you'll never realise the culmination of your work." She stated.

This was right, what Haru wanted to do and was very close to achieving, was something very elusive and ethereal even in this advanced age.

He was working on allowing the average person to not only willingly tap into the power of their subconscious mind but to also wield it as adeptly as their conscious mind, maybe even more. Hence the name, subconscious brandishment, one will now be able to brandish their subconscious mind.

Haru realized in the earlier parts of his life, that he was able to tap into his subconscious mind at will, this was why his intelligence was so daunting even at his young age.

This was something he told no one, not even Kia. It was also the basis he used to start and continue his research, but now he reached the bottleneck.

He was born able to connect with it and partially control it, so how would be able to grant control of someone's subconscious mind to themselves if he was born cutting out the middle man.

"It'll come to me, besides, big sis is with me and big brother is looking forward to the day my research is completed."

His 'big sis' looked at him with a bit of awe. The unknown was always a bit scary, yet Haru was jumping into it headfirst.