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A large pair of doors at the end of the hallway flung open and a large man came flying out with a kick.

“KAZUKI! YOU BASTARD!”

Kazuki watched this man come flying at him and smirked. Lifting a single finger, he easily pushed the man’s foot to the side sending his kick towards his left. The man was surprised but continued his pressing attack. He used Kazuki’s push against his foot and spun in the air, bringing his other foot downward into an ax kick.

Once again Kazuki blocked with a single finger sending the man spinning in mid-air.

The man dropped to the floor, landing in a squatting position. Ki filled his body and he exploded upward in a jump. The ground cracked beneath his feet causing several floors to shake. With ki giving him a boost, the man threw a flying knee toward Kazuki’s chin.

The man thought he had landed the blow but to his shock, Kazuki had blocked him a final time with just one finger.

“Hmm, James, it looks like you’ve gotten stronger but you still need a long way before you can catch up to me. Now are we done playing or shall I show you a thing or two?”

Ki surrounded Kazuki’s entire body and spread outward affecting everyone in the hall. The man called James felt an overwhelming pressure and jumped backward.

“Damn, I haven’t seen you in years and thought you might have grown sloppy but to think the gap has increased by so much. I knew it then and it’s still the same even now, Kazuki your just way too fucking strong.”

…

A strange tension filled the air but just as it seemed like another exchange may take place, suddenly Kazuki and James started laughing.

*Bwahahaha*

*Hehehahahaha*

Kazuki and James stepped forward and clasped hands.

“It’s good to see you, asshole. Where have you been all this time, leaving all the work to me.”

Kazuki shrugged.

“I told you I had things that I needed to take care of. Besides if I recall you were the one who insisted on being el Presidente. You wanted to run the business and I wanted to be in the background. As far as I see it, we both got exactly what we wanted.”

James smirked.

“True enough, being president of one of the biggest security firms in Japan does have its perks. Still, it would have been more fun if you were out here with me. Just what have you been up to all this time?”

Kazuki looked left and right at the many bodyguards and James got the message loud and clear.

“Right right, let’s not talk out here. Executive Soo, make sure no one disturbs us, and Kazuki these are your friends, guests?  Either way, since you brought them you must have a reason. Please everyone come in come in.”

Walking past the guards, their professional attitude had greatly shifted after seeing their boss lose against Kazuki. Now, their gazes were filled with admiration as well as fear. They knew what boss James was capable of and yet they just saw him lose out so easily. These guards were in awe that there was someone with Kazuki’s capability who was a part of them.

Entering James’s office, everyone besides Kazuki was surprised. nearly the entire top floor was dedicated to this office and it was the size of a large open home. With luxury furniture, a hot tub, large TVs, and a full kitchen, the place had everything to live comfortably. No, more than that, this office was a place where one could live better than 99% of the rest of the population.

James led everyone to a large sitting area and sat down. A maid who came out of seemingly nowhere prepared drinks and snacks.

“I didn’t stop by to have lunch. I’m only here for a moment. You are still holding a few things for me right?”

James was disappointed.

“Kazuki, I haven’t seen you for years, and you’re already going to leave me. You make a brother feel sad.”

Kazuki shook his head.

“Business associates, nothing more. You know this.”

James picked up a glass and filled it with a dark brown liquor. From the smell, Kazuki could tell it was whiskey. With a single gulp, James down it. he didn’t savor it and just sent it down as if he were annoyed.

*Haa*

“Still the same, still cold to the man who brought you wealth. You come here after disappearing after so many years with that same confident attitude. As if everything is in your hands, in your sight. You know the board members were trying to get me to declare you dead so they could split your shares amongst themselves, the greedy pigs. Seeing how cold you are, maybe I should have done that and been done with it.”

Kazuki smiled.

“That would have been the worst mistake of your life.”

James refilled his cup and gulped down another glass.

“Don’t I know it? Even after searching for you all over the world and not finding a single trace of you, I still wouldn’t dare do something like that to you. Loyalty is something that does not come so easily and the same goes for trust. I was kidding when I said I brought you wealth. I know where I’d e if you didn’t interfere back in the day. They’d have tossed me in the Sumida river with a bucket full of cement around my feet if not for you.”

Kazuki remembered the old days.

“You loved getting yourself into some real shit back then. Now things are different. those old gangs, we dissolved them together.”

James shook his head.

“You did that, I just put pieces into place, you were always the one busting heads and breaking legs. I couldn’t have done it without you laying the foundation.”

James looked at Alutra and the others. Since Kazuki wasn’t stopping him, he assumed it was ok to say all of this in front of them.

“Are you that curious about them?”

James nodded.

Kazuki pointed at everyone one at a time.

“This is my uncle Lin, my aunt Alutra, her girlfriend Detra, and my master Granny Master Maya.”

James was surprised but especially so when he heard about Maya.

He looked back at Kazuki to see if he was serious and Kazuki just nodded. James immediately fell to his knees and bowed three times.

“Forgive me, I didn’t recognize Masters master. Grand disciple offers his respect.”

Maya glanced at Kazuki, but Kazuki rolled his eyes. With a flick of his finger, James was lifted from his knees and placed back in his seat. He looked perplexed, at how Kazuki moved him without touching him. He knew Kazuki was stronger but by this much, it was shocking.

“Kazuki, what is this man saying?”

Kazuki sighed inwardly.

“Forget what he’s saying. Back in the day, I taught him how to use ki but I never accepted him as a disciple. Since he was a gangster, I thought him being a disciple would ruin your reputation so he was never made a formal disciple but yes, he practices ki manipulation just like how you taught me.”

Maya was just curious. She wasn’t offended or anything by a rascal learning her arts. She was traditional in some sense and very untraditional in many other ways. If Kazuki wished to pass on what he learned, she wouldn’t blame nor try and restrict him. She loved seeing her arts spread and wanted to see just how far one could go with them. Besides, if Kazuki was the one who picked the person then she would have no complaints about who he chose.

Maya sent a wave of ki into James to inspect him and he dared not resist. After taking a simple glance, she nodded in satisfaction.

“You’ve only been practicing for a few years yet you already have almost 40 years’ worth of cultivation. Not bad, not bad at all.”

James was proud that Maya recognized him and he wanted to ask her if she would officially make him a disciple but before he could it was as if Kazuki read his mind as he spoke.

“Don’t ask.”

James was a little frustrated but reality hit him. Becoming a disciple now at his age and when he was running a company, he knew it would make things unnecessarily messy in his life and dropped it.

“So you are his uncle and aunt…by blood?”

Alutra smiled.

“Yep. Since you helped little Kazuki, you have done me a favor, if you ever need anything I’ll give you a hand.”

Alutra finished her little speech with a wink but James was confused. He could sense no ki flowing through Lin ALutra or Detra and he wasn’t quite strong enough to sense their strength so he thought they were ordinary people. He didn’t think Alutra could do anything for him and simply nodded and went along with it to be nice.

“Thank you for the offer.”

Lin simply nodded along and didn’t introduce himself. He was looking annoyed. Kazuki could read a little bit of his soul and knew Lin was upset because James had attacked Kazuki out of nowhere. Even if the two knew one another, Lin didn’t like James very much for that fact alone.

“James, enough with the pleasantries, we can catch up some other time. I came here to collect a few of my things. You still have them right?”

James gulped down another glass of whiskey, circulating his ki, he dissipated the alcohol inside and cleared his head before getting up and walking over to a bookshelf.

“Of course, I still have those things. Everything inside is yours.”

Pressing a book inward, a small panel opened in front of James and he placed his hand on a scanner. a moment later a small orb also scanned his retina before an artificial voice called out.

“King James authorization accepted.”

The bookcase then separated while Kazuki was giving him a strange look.

“King James…Really?”

James shrugged.

“As far as I’m concenred, I basically am a King, at least in this building heh.”

The 15-foot bookcase separated revealing a large metal vault door. The door slowly opened revealing a large interior filled with a stock of guns and ammunition. Several gold bars were stacked up into a large pyramid and a tall fat hill of cash was piled to the ceiling. Besides that, there were other odd things here and there. Mysterious gems that shined under the light, works of art, different identification and other passports, etc.

Kazuki walked over to the identification and opened his storage ring. His ring sucked everything inside besides the weapons and gold. Millions of us dollars as well as hundreds of millions of yen and so on. Last but not least he picked up a small case that held a black credit card within. He placed that inside of his ring as well.

After that, he walked out.

“What the hell was that. All of the money, where did it go just now?”

Kazuki took out a small ring he made himself and tossed it to James. The ring was dull and looked like it was made of wood. There was no gem or crystal embedded in it but there were tiny lines of inscription. The ring was a storage ring but had very limited capacity. It had a space inside that was equal to a 10 by 10 room and had a tiny crystal within that powered it. With the small crystal within and the small space, the ring could operate for 10,000 years before the energy ran out.

“That’s a storage ring, place a drop of blood on it and it will open with your will and your will alone. It’s a gift for keeping your promise and protecting my shit. Everyone, master, let’s go grab lunch. James, I’ll see you later.”

James was confused.

“Wait a storage ring, like a fantasy novel with magic and shit?”

Kazuki didn’t say anything and simply left.

After James placed a drop of blood on the ring it began to shine with a dull light before his mind was suddenly connected with a small room worth of space.

A moment later James was left in shock.

(Kazuki, what the hell have you been doing all this time!?)