Solo Cultivation in The Apocalypse

The three of them were headed to the Vr-cade. They crossed the bridge, then the shops around the corner, and finally the Vr-cade was in view. They just had to climb the elevated hill to reach the Vr-cade.

Hitori saw Eya looking at him, so he shrugged. She stopped, turned with a solemn expression, and asked, "What is the danger?"

"I said that we are in danger, is not that enough?"

"Yes, yes, it is enough, Hitori-san, but I like to know what danger we are facing."

Hitori clicked his tongue and glanced at Akira. I don't want to express that danger in front of this guy, he thought.

"You got to tell me, or we are not going any further." She stood in front of him and spread her arms.

"Listen, you need to believe me. I know what the danger is," Hitori said, still trying to hide the danger from Akira. He didn't know why, but he felt like he had to.

But Akira saw no reason to hide the fact from Eya, so he said, "He is worried about his friend in front of the house. He is a tall, dark man, wearing a suit, is a scientist, and—"

"Shut up!" Hitori shouted. "That man is not my friend!" he said, clenching his fists in anger.

Akira jumped due to the sudden outburst. Eya glanced between the two of them. Hitori was staring at Akira like an angry bull.

Akira mustered the courage somehow and said, "Then who is he? Why do you hide it from Eya-nee?"

"I am not hiding it from her, I am hiding it from you!"

Eya jumped in. "You don't need to, just tell us what the danger is! Who this man is!"

Akira gulped, he felt he was pushing his luck. "Yeah, why are you so afraid of your friend?"

"That man is not a friend, first of all," Hitori said, calming himself down. Then he looked at Eya and said, "He was wearing sunglasses. And he had dagger-like pupils. Orange eyes."

He saw fear turning the pupils of Eya's eyes wide. He wondered if her heart was beating the same as his beat when he had recognized the man Akira was talking about.

She narrowed her eyes and bobbed her head. Hitori nodded in response, which confirmed her doubt.

"Orange eyes full of venom, that is right. So why are you afraid of this friend so—"

Hitori had had enough. He turned around and grabbed Akira by the neck again, this time holding him in the air. For the first time, Hitori was expressing his anger this way, he did not realize his strength.

"That bastard is not a friend, he is a hitman sent to kill me. Do you freaking understand it?" Hitori pierced into Akira's eyes, but he could not maintain the stare for long.

Akira stared blankly at him. The man he called Hitori's friend, the man he had a nice talk with, the man he had his suspicion on, turned out to be a hitman sent by… he thought of Onogi.

"Do you understand?" Hitori shook him.

Eya stepped beside him and grabbed his arm. "Stop it, Hitori-san, let him down!" she shouted in her high-pitched, but deep voice.

Akira could not realize if he really nodded or if his head shook because Hitori shook him, but he nodded. Hitori let him down, and Akira spun and coughed the hell.

Eya went to Akira and healed him, taking care of whatever little pain Hitori must have made him suffer from. Whilst, Hitori realized his strength– before, he could never imagine hitting someone, and now, he was lifting people off the ground by their neck and shoulder.

"Come on, we need to get support and head back to the house." He started climbing the hill.

Eya turned at him. "Get back? Do you want to face that bastard? He might have an entire army with him!"

"No," Akira said, still coughing, "he is alone."

She shook her head. "Was he carefree? Over-confident type?"

Hitori waited while she confronted Akira about Tengoku's attitude.

"I talked to him and he seemed carefree… absolutely not someone who was sent to kill."

"Then either he really is over-confident," she said, "or he has an army with him, hiding somewhere."

Hitori came back to him. "You noticed the clothes he was wearing, right? Did you see a katana with him?"

"A katana? If I had, I would have petrified him right there. No way I would come to you and ask you to meet your friend, like a fool."

"Don't blame your—"

Hitori interrupted her. "No katana? Try to remember. He must be hiding it…"

"I am telling you!" he shouted. "And I would have told you when you asked me about details– I guess katana is a big detail to go unnoticed…" He drifted as an image of a man with broad shoulders appeared in front of him.

A katana on his shoulder, a hand on his hips, staring at the house. Oh, yes. It was not his imagination. It WAS a katana.

He nodded his head five to ten times in two seconds. "A katana. He had a katana over his shoulder when I walked past him. When I came back, the katana was gone. I thought I was—"

"A katana where?" Hitori asked, intrigued by the topic. "Where was he holding the katana?"

Akira, unknown to the reason why Hitori was so excited to know, said casually, "Over his shoulder."

Hitori jerked his head forward, clapped his hands, and turned away from Akira. "Tengoku. That bastard IS Tengoku."

Eya glanced at him, then turned to Akira. "We might need Kyo-san for this," she muttered.

Akira considered it for a while, then nodded. "If shit happens, I will call him. I do not want to disturb him for no reason."

She wanted him to call Kyoryu for support, but she agreed without any argument. "If you see someone other than him, call Kyo-san."

"It would be useless to call him if this Tengoku is alone. I believe even Kakashi will take him. Or even you."