"Kin.."kin's mother, hana zuko yelled kin's name"dinner's ready"

"Okay ma, i'm coming"kin replied and rushed to the dinning room,

"So kin, how was your day? "kin's dad Arumin zuko asked,

"It was okay, nothing new happened"kin replied, "no talking on the dinning ta..."hana was cut short by the sound of marching coming from their village, they all rushed out to find some group of men, with all sort of enchanted weapons outside.

"What do you want from us? "Arumin asked and one of the men came out to meet Arumin, he had black hair and was wearing a robe with then drawing of the moon,

"give us all your harvest of this year and we go without causing any harm",

"Maze"Arumin dad called his trusted friend, "gather all the harvest of this year and give it to them",

Maze did as Arumin had instructed and brought out all their harvest, "is this all? " the man with black hair who seemed like their leader asked, "yes this is all" Arumin replied, "give us all the jewelry you have, starting from that one" the man with black hair said pointing at the bangle on hana's wrist, "no, you can't have it, it was given to me by my mother" hana replied and before everyone's eyes, a kunai was already on her chest,

"Mom..... " kin shouted while Arumin rushed to attack their leader but was badly beaten, nearly to death.

The group of men left with the food, kin was still on the floor crying on his mother's corpse while the villagers carried Arumin to his house and started attending to his wounds.

Two days later...

Arumin has started showing progress in his recovery, while kin has been in his room after the day of the incident, refusing to come out or even eat anything, he was locked up in his room, he thought about everything that had happened on the day and after much thought he finally decided that he was going to become the Daitōryō \(The ruler of a country\) and avenge his mom by bringing the bandits who attacked their village to justice.

Three days later.......

Kin had finally come out of his room and he found maze his father's friend, "where's dad? " kin asked maze,

"He is in the healers house, receiving his treatment " maze replied with a faint tone of pity in his voice,

"Thank you" kin said while rushing to the healers house in order to tell his father about his plan.....

Kin entered into the healers house and was hugged by someone who he realized to be his dad

"Kin, you finally came out" Arumin said in a happy tone,

"Dad I have something to discuss with you" kin said in a serious tone,

"What is it son" Arumin replied...

Kin told Arumin about his plan to leave ichi village and head to the city of ryo, in order to start training to become a Daitōryō fortress \( someone who works as a soldier for the Daitōryō\)

"No son, you can't go, besides you are only fourteen " Arumin replied

"I'm sorry dad but I've already decided it, you can't say anything to change my mind" kin said and quickly left the healers house.

It was already night and kin had already started packing his bag, he stopped when he heard a knock on his room door,

"It's open" kin said, and Arumin entered into the room,

"Dad you can't stop me " kin said

"I'm not hear to stop you son, i'm here to give you this" Arumin said and gave kin an interspatial ring (a ring that can contain anything due to it's spacious nature although it does run out of space when too many things are kept inside)

"Thanks dad " kin said and hugged his father.

The next day, kin had already packed his things and was ready to leave ichi village,

"Don't get into trouble, " Arumin said

" I won't " kin replied

" and remember to visit when you have the chance " Arumin said

"I will, bye dad" kin said and left.

On kin's way to Ryo City he heard something move in the bushes and suddenly moved back, " whose there " kin asked, a woman holding a basket came out from the bush, " what are you doing wandering around the forest, what if you were to be attacked by magical beasts, what do you think your parent's would do if they were to lose you? " the woman asked

"magical beasts? " kin asked in a confused tone, "what are you doing in the forest anyways?, it's almost night" the woman said, " i'm actually going to Ryo city", kin said, "it's late, you should find somewhere to stay for the night, would you like to follow me home? ", the woman asked and kin thought about it for a while before finally accepting her request.

They made it to the Dia village just before sunset, it was a small village but it was still bigger than Ichi village, the woman took kin and went into a hut that was in the center of the village, "Raito.... "The woman yelled, "ma" answered by a boy who seemed to be the same age as kin, he was a little bit taller and he had brown coloured hair, "take this boy's bag to your room, he is going to be spending the night with us" the woman said, " and what is your name kid" the woman asked,

"Kin Zuko" kin replied, "you can call me Sara kin" Sara said, "kin follow raito and he'll show you where you are going to be sleeping tonight" Sara said and kin followed Raito to his room.

"My name's Raito", Raito said, "where are you from kin?"Raito asked,

"Ichi village"Kin replied, "where's your dad? Kin asked in a curious tone,

"He died while hunting magical beasts"Raito replied with a faint tone of sadness visible in his voice, not wanting to continue with the topic, Kin quickly asked a question that had been bothering him for quite sometime,

"What are magical beasts by the way",

"You don't know what magical beasts are " Raito asked with a surprised tone,

"No"

"Well since you don't know, magical beasts are similar to animals, usually with higher intelligence and supernatural or extraordinary abilities or qualities", "next thing you'll tell me is you don't know what rugi energy is ", Raito said

"Am I supposed to know, because I don't", kin said in a confused tone,

"WHAT...... ", "calm down Raito we talked about this, " Raito murmured to himself while Kin stood there giving Raito a confused look.

"Well rugi energy is a luminous body that surrounds your physical one. Each layer - and any problems in them - surrounds your body in a net of energy, each individual has a unique type of rugi energy and each rugi energy determines what type of element he or she can control, I can control lightning while my dad could control fire but my mom said she has no use for it so she never activated her's " Raito said.

"How does one activate their rugi energy " Kin asked,

"You just have to focus and clear your mind, when you see a round shape of color you'd know what element you can control, Red means fire, brown means earth, white means air, blue means water, purple means lightning and grey means metal.

It usually takes time to activate your rugi energy, it took me five days to activate mine", Raito said.

"Raito, Kin dinners ready" Sara yelled,

"You heard her let's go down for dinner", Raito told Kin and they both left their room.

During dinner.....

"So kin, may I ask why you were going to Ryo City?", Sara asked,

"Well, I want to become a Daitōryō fortress, so i'm going to Ryo city to attend the kabaneri academy for future Daitōryō fortresses ",

"Oh, Raito here too wants to be a Daitōryō fortress and will be leaving for Ryo city in the next five days, do you think you can wait for him, because I don't trust him to be traveling alone ",

"Mom, come on you couldn't think of another reason" Raito said,

"sure" Kin replied while trying to hold his laugh.

After dinner Raito and kin thanked Sara for the food and went to their room,

"You should probably start trying to activate your rugi energy, because I heard you won't be able to enroll if you can't control an element "

"Ok"Kin said and sat on the floor with his legs crossed,

"While you're at that, I should start cultivating if I want to breakthrough to rank B beginner " Raito murmured to himself but it was still loud enough for kin to hear it,

"What's rank B beginner?

"It's part of a ranking system which Daitōryō fortresses use to identify a fortress level of power, it's like this,

Beginner :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

Amateur :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

Expert :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

Master :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

Legend :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

Demi - god :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

god :

Rank D

Rank C

Rank B

Rank A

Rank S

Only few people has been able to reach the demi - god rank like the current Daitōryō whose in rank d demi - god I think, and legend has it that the only person who reached the god level was the first Daitōryō.

I'm currently in rank C beginner and hopefully I'll be able to breakthrough to rank B beginner before we leave for Ryo city, enough talking let's focus and hope for good results" Raito said while joining kin on the floor.

Three days later.....

It was night and raito and kin were still trying to achieve their goals until,

"I can see it " Kin said

"What element are you" Raito asked in curiosity,

"I'm...

" I'm a metal " kin said.

Two days later...

It was finally time for their departure, Raito was able to reach the rank B beginner, while Kin had finally activated his element.

"Take care boy's, don't get into trouble and stay safe" Sara said while bidding them goodbye, " we will " Raito replied while Kin bid her goodbye and they left the village.

While walking through the forest they heard the sound of some dry leave's being crushed and when they turned back to check if anyone was following them, they came in contact with a magical beast and it looked like it was about to charge them,

"Is that a magical beast " Kin asked, "yeah, stay back " Raito said and immediately started running to the magical beast,

"LIGHTNING PALM"Raito said halfway near the magical beast and suddenly his palms were radiating electricity, he got to where the magical beast was and touched the beast with his right palm that was still radiating electricity, the impact of his palm on the beast was so strong that it sent the beast flying some miles away and hitting a tree which led to its death.

Kin who was still surprised by what he just saw finally asked, "what was that", " it's a technique that I formed, it's name is lightning palm and it allows me to generate an electric current between my palm, when i comes in contact with someone i can paralyze or burn any selected part of their body, we're actually lucky that it was just a rank D Beginner magical beast if not we would have been toast, i'm still too weak so it can only lead to death for rank D Beginner magical beast, it may paralyze or cause some minor burns on a rank C beginner magical beast, but it all depends on the magical beast you're going against.

"How do I form a technique of my own"

"It all depends on your creativity and also your element, you have to decide on a technique you think suits you "

"Quick, help me take the horns and fur from this magical beast, people in the city would want to buy these type of stuff "Raito said.

when they were done with taking what they needed from the magical beast Raito realized that it wouldn't fit into their bags "I guess we'll have to leave it, after all those work" Raito said with disappointment visible in his voice

"No we don't, I have an interspatial ring so we should keep it there "

"Wow, I've never seen one before, it must have been pretty expensive, how much is it? Raito asked

"I don't know, it was a gift from my dad, he gave me before I left the village"

"So, do I just put everything on your finger or..? "Raito asked in confusion

"Give it " Kin said and Raito gave him the fur and the horns, Kin put the fur and horns above the ring and it suddenly sucked the things in while Raito stayed there looking at the ring with admiration visible in his eyes.

"Let's go, before we run into another magical beast" Kin said then they continued their journey to Ryo city.

They finally arrived Ryo city the following day,

"Wow, it's so big" Raito said looking at the city

"GET OUT OF THE WAY "a man who was riding a chariot shouted at Raito who almost got hit by the chariot if not for kin who pushed Raito out of the way before the chariot could hit him.

"Not even an apology, how rude" Raito said, when they suddenly heard the sound of thunder signaling that it was about to rain,

"Let's go look for an inn before it starts raining " Kin said while Raito nodded in agreement.

After wandering around for some minutes they finally found an inn and they paid 200 Teo's for a two months stay which totaled 2,800 Teo remaining from the money Kin's dad and Raito's mom had given them.

That night kin woke up and found Raito cultivating and joined him in hopes that he would breakthrough to rank C beginner.

The next day was the day they would enroll into the kabaneri academy for future fortress, on their arrival at the school the amount of children they found waiting to be enrolled for the exams was overwhelming,

"None of them looks like a real threat, this exam is going to be easy"Raito said

"That's easy for you to say, let's go to the enrollment center before the line there gets any longer, " Kin said

They waited in line for hours and when it was finally their turn, they began to here whispers, "it's him", it's Chi kyu, heir of the kyu clan. And it didn't take long for them to feel a strong rugi energy emitting from someone, The rugi energy was so terrifying that when the person stayed in front of them, they weren't able to move a muscle but just stand there and stare at the person with fear and horror in their eyes.