Reunited [Hiro and Zero]

After his failures as a student with Tumu and Xan, Zero had been seriously down in the dumps, thinking there was no way he was cut out to be a Knight of Pandora. However, after meeting Carmen Zero had developed new resolve. He left the Knights for some time to himself, to gather his thoughts and figure out exactly what he wished to do. And after a few months of soul searching and hardening himself, Zero finally believed it was time to return. Once he did he had heard of the influx of Knights within Pandora and was a bit anxious about returning, but then he heard his old friend Hiro Denkou had managed to rise to the ranks of a Silver Knight. Zero was seriously happy for him and wished to congratulate him, maybe even get a few pointers. As he made his way to Hiro's location which he had gotten from some civilians who spotted him off elsewhere, he couldn't help but mentally close off the world around him, still a bit afraid of the monsters lurking about, especially the new Demons that looked purely monstrous, like something out of a nightmare. It seemed Pandora just got scarier while he was away.

“Mission complete I guess.” Hiro muttered to himself after reading the note that Xan had left him, congratulating him on successfully delivering the Jiko to Pandora. It was bad enough that Hiro had literally gone out of his way of his way to ensure that the kid had arrived at Pandora safely but Telarossa didn’t even have the decency to show up to meet the person that his lackeys probably died protecting, what was his deal anyway? Hopefully the Jiko will be able to adapt to life in Pandora since it was completely different from life in the Allied Shinobi Nations what with all the internal fighting for power, the war between races and the occasional civil unrest. “I guess he’ll be okay.” The young knight said to himself before folding the piece of paper in his pocket. With no other directives he was pretty much free to do whatever he pleased and since Mary was out shopping for supplies for their new home and Cleo was nowhere to be seen, he had nothing interesting to do. “I guess I’ll just go do some training.” Though he didn’t want to but since there was nothing else to do it wasn’t like he had a choice. Waving goodbye to the TLAH order member that had delivered the message to him, he would make his way down the street and to the training grounds.

Zero almost missed seeing Hiro as he was walking down the streets from trying to close himself off. It wasn't until he actually passed Hiro that he had realized who it was. Hiro probably wouldn't recognize Shiro now that he was covered in bandages from head to toe, but Zero would never forget the guy who Xan chose over him. Not that he was jealous, but more like he admired the guy. Zero would come to a dead stop, taking a second glance toward Hiro before smiling and running up behind him. "Hiro-san!" Zero would shout, trying to get Hiro's attention before stopping short of Hiro if Hiro did stop. He would then rub the back of his head. "I guess it's Hiro-senpai now I guess. Haha. Congratulations on becoming a Silver Knight! Its so cool! What order did you join? Have you met Carmen?" Zero would accidentally bombard Hiro with a few questions, mostly out of nervousness. Truth was though he admired this guy, like most people in Pandora, he was afraid of him. Everyone in Pandora were monsters, except Zero.

As he was about to pick up the pace so that he could get to the training grounds as quickly as possible, the sound of someone calling his name made him stop in his tracks. Though it wasn’t the voice of any of the three predominate people in his life at the moment, he did in fact recognize the voice but he couldn’t quite put his finger on who it was, he was pretty sure he’d find out anyway. His eyes would shift into the direction of the person and the first thing he would notice was bandages? The fact that this person was covered in bandages meant one of two things, it was either he had just escaped from some sort of mental asylum or he held the curse mark of mummy, and with Pandora being a mental asylum itself then it was obviously the latter and now that he had deduced that mystery that would mean that this person was Zero, since he only knew one person with the Mummy curse mark. “Zero-kun? It’s been awhile since I’ve seen you around where have you been?” He asked genuinely interested in where the kid had been for so long. “Thanks, all my hard work finally paid off but of course I’m not stopping at Silver Knight I’m aiming higher!” Hiro said with a smile before giving him a thumbs up. “I should be joining up with the HUIT order soon and no I haven’t met the God Queen, infact I’ve been training so hard I’ve harldy had time to be social with anyone sadly.”

Zero was happy that Hiro actually remembered him even though they only really met once in training. Zero was a bit quiet as he spoke about where he had been. "Well.... You see.... After Xan abandoned me and Tumu kind of didn't want me... I met lady Carmen. And well, after meeting her I realized I wasn't cut out to be a Knight. So I quit for a time. I went on a small journey to try and find myself. And to.. Try to get braver and what not... Well, I think I can somehow... Umm. Become a better Knight now so I have returned. I don't really... Umm... Stutter as bad as I used to. I'm still not well... That good of a talker and I am still a bit.. afraid at times. But I wont let it hold me back from becoming a true Knight of Pandora," he would say, rubbing his hands together subconsciously out of nervousness. He still needed to try and find a Knight to serve under. He was sure Xan wouldn't take him back and was unsure about Tumu as well. His options were limited but worst case scenario he'd learn on his own.

He would’ve liked to reassure the young boy that Xan didn’t in fact abandon him, however that was exactly what had happened. From what he had heard, Xan was particularly picky when it came to choosing apprentices, and when they showed that they weren’t up to the task he would drop them like a bad habit which was what he was told happened with Tumu and Zero was obviously a special case since he was an Ibwa and he wasn’t filled with bloodlust like Xan had, which as the leader of the clan frowned upon. Though the fact that he had ended up meeting the God Queen herself was quite interesting, he had heard that she had a soft spot for little children so that’s probably the reason he was currently living. “I’m glad to hear that you’re taking steps to becoming a better Knight, you’re pretty strong you know so I know you have it in you to be great.” He said with a smile before patting the kid on his head.

Zero blushed a little when he said Zero was strong. "Eh... I'm not that strong... But I did figure out the basics of my ability. I can apparently absorb an element into my body and then my body can take on the properties of the element. So far it hasn't allowed me to utilize elemental ninjutsu, though I can do some elemental Taijutsu, mostly it giving my regular taijutsu basic properties. I haven't tried with Kenjutsu yet. I haven't really discovered a limit to it yet either. So far I have obtained a Phase Element and a Life Element transformation. My next step to do is to try and find a new mentor, as I think my former one has too many students now. I'm not sure though. Do you know of any Silver Knight or higher that have an open position?" he would ask since Hiro was a Silver Knight and would hopefully know more about the other Knights and their students now.

Hiro had already known about his ability as they had a minor training session together before his sudden disappearance, but it seems he would give him the benefit of the doubt since he’s been through a lot at such a young age which sucked completely. “I don’t think old man Tumu has any other students besides the succubus girl so maybe you can approach him and ask him to be your mentor once more, though the word on the street is that he’s taken a rather unhealthy interest in Amamiya. But I’m pretty sure he’ll welcome you into his fold.” He said with a smile. He had some wired kind of respect for Tumu since they had done that escort mission together, his manipulative apprentice, however was a different story. Perhaps he was just sore after he had lost to her but every time he had thought of her or someone mentioned her name his stomach churned. “The only Silver Knights I do know belong to TLAH Order and then there is me that’s if you’re interested in being my apprentice.” He hadn’t much to teach the kid but he would gladly help him out if needed after all they were friends.

"Be your apprentice? Hmm.. That would be interesting. I mean you were taught by the Bloody Ruler after all. And you're a True All Taijutsu fighter like me, right? So, it could work out. Tumu wasn't much in terms of a physical fighter. And Xan abandoned me. So maybe you could help me out more. I don't have much in terms of current potential but I am sure you can make something of me," he would say as he adjusted a bandage on his forehead after it slipped and uncovered some of the stitches on his face. It was so weird being undead now, unable to die. He no longer had to really worry about the Ibwa's immortality offer to Jashin now that he was immortal. It was just something else to make him even more of an outcast from his clan. Perhaps he could try and find a new way to use his bloodline than the current way it was used.

With Zero agreeing to be his apprentice that would take Hiro’s total tally of apprentices to two since he had already agreed to take on Niklaus. Both boys were polar opposites of each other as Niklaus was more unstable and violent whereas Zero was clam and peaceful. Would the two mesh together? Probably not, but it be interesting to see how they interacted with each other and hopefully Nik doesn’t succumb to his envy once he sees Zero’s ability, that would be a problem for them all. “I’m glad that you accepted. How about a training session to get things started?” Hiro said with a smile. In truth Hiro was bored out of his mind with his latest mission being nothing but a watered down escort mission of a semi dead body and with Xan probably training his next apprentice might as well start his journey to Gold Knight.

"Before that. I was wondering. Well, with the Undead and Mummy supplement... Even though I am a True All Taijutsu fighter, I can still utilize the elements via Taijutsu, which going with my Ronin Ability of Elemental Transformations it should infuse whatever I do via them with the Elemental Transformations effects. But.. I had an idea. I want to try combining both supplements into something stronger. Combining Paper and Thread... But I don't know what to do or even if the combined creation would be good. What do you think, mentor?" he would say, though it was kind of strange calling him that since they used to be the same rank. Zero was nervous about becoming this guys student, but it was better than some of the monsters around Pandora.

After finally getting done with the animal scotuing and taming Niklaus decided it was time too go train. Despite his best efforts the animal he had meet was still following him and he had kinda gotten used too it choosing too slow down so it could keep pace with him. For some reason he knew it was not going too leave. The way too the training grounds were always interesting watching the numerous crazys pass Niklaus just kept his eyes forward.

Upon reaching the training grounds one would notice Niklaus was in a male ninja's skin suit. His clothes would be black robe with his sickles hanging two on each side with a bulk of chain around his torso causing him to let off a errie cling with each step. He would quickly spot hiro and walk over too him and the other guy giving him a sharp look. It seemed niklaus made it just in time this guy here had a nice ability and was some sort of mummy or something he would have too keep a eye on him.


Interrupting the whole thing Niklaus would step in front of Zero and talk too Hiro.

Let's Train, why are you talking too this guy?

Hiro would mull over Zero’s words a bit before giving him a reply. The use of elements wasn’t exactly his forte as he was a swordsman first and a magician second, but he did understand what the boy was getting at. He already had two access to two dual combination elemental kekkei genkai so why not use them to their fullest extent? The only problem was that they both were completely opposite of each other and with the limited knowledge he had on these elements so he was coming up with zero ideas at the moment. “Though a combination of thread and paper sounds pretty powerful, a combination between the two doesn’t mesh well in my head just like how a fire and water could be combined to make scalding water, ya get me? But I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to figure you out.” Hiro could think of many ways he could use thread and lightning or paper and lightning but combining paper and thread were pulling up zero results.

Before he could get out another word out, he would be interrupted by the sudden appearance of Niklaus. “Hey there Niklaus, we were just about to start training. This is my second apprentice Zero, he’s from the Ibwa clan and was mentored by Xan. I hope you’ll be kind to him as he’s a pretty cool kid.”