Inside the Kurogane mansion, s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o was summoned to Kurogane Tenma's office.

"You called for me father?" s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o greeted his father who sat solemnly behind his desk.

It has relatively been a peaceful past three years despite their clan's expectations to be involved in another war against the Kouzuki family who called in Nagato Tsuna early. Thanks to s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o's early intervention however, things did not go as they expected and their clan once again had the hope of reaching greater heights because of the existence of s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o's once considered mistake in the past.

"How is the boy?" Tenma asked.

"Kazuya? He's at the shooting range on the east side of the mansion" s.h.i.+sho replied. "He has taken quite an interest in your firearm collection father"

"Oh?" Tenma was pleased to hear this. To be honest, he didn't have a good impression when Kazuya first entered the Kurogane mansion. Not only did Kazuya not pay any respects towards any of the elders of the family, he even thrashed Kurogane Suzaku who tried to mark his own territory.

It happened about two years ago when Kazuya had just entered middle school. He was taken to the Kurogane mansion by Kurogane s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o but when he went to report to Tenma, Kazuya encountered Suzaku who thought that he had the upper hand because they were in the Kurogane mansion.

"So you really did dare to show yourself in my place" Suzaku grinned as he approached Kazuya who waited patiently for s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o's return. He was accompanied by some of the elders who were quite curious about Kazuya so he showed quite the att.i.tude.

"…" Kazuya glanced at him only for a second before ignoring him and focused on the tea that was served.

*SLAP* Suzaku slapped the tea from Kazuya's hand wanting to let the boy get scalded but how could Kazuya let things go as this brat wanted? The elders were quite disturbed by Suzaku's behavior but they kept quiet and didn't reprimand him which made Kazuya displeased. What were they here for then? It was no wonder the children from the Kuroganes have been so arrogant and stupid.

"Listen up, you're in the territory of the Kurogane clan now so I want you to pay your respects to me and the elders. Didn't you come here because you're supposed to be uncle s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o's 'illegitimate son?'" he grinned while making sure to make it clear by p.r.o.nouncing the word 'illegitimate' slowly.

"I see…" Kazuya looked at the elders directly in the eye but they avoided his gaze feigning ignorance of whatever they witnessed.

Kazuya felt the presence of s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o along with the presence of another man who he a.s.sumed to be Tenma so he decided to make his move.

*GRAB* Kazuya used a hand to hold Suzaku by the neck and raised him from the ground whilst slowly choking him.

"You Kuroganes sure have a unique way of treating your guests" he made sure that both s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o and Tenma could hear him as he pretended not to see them enter the room from behind. "I only came here because of my father's persistence but this is the welcome I get? Elders who turn a blind eye to this dumb kid's stupidity once again? Do you really want to start a war with the Kouzuki clan so badly?" he slowly tightened his grip on Suzaku's neck who struggled to breathe.

"You… dare…" Suzaku already saw Tenma and s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o who were surprised by what was happening the moment they entered and thought that Kazuya was done for this time.

"Looks like the truce my father convinced me of was only on the surface? You still dare keep grudges for the problems you yourself created for yourself despite the numerous warnings I've given you to not mess with me?" Kazuya took out a knife from his pocket and instead of pointing it at Suzaku, he pointed it at himself.

"Do you dare see what would happen if I came out of this place bleeding or unconscious?" Kazuya smiled as he pushed the tip of the blade towards his arm.

"Stop" out of everyone's expectations, it was Tenma who grabbed Kazuya's arm and prevented the blade from reaching the boy's skin. "You don't need to remind us because all of us know the consequences after Nagato Tsuna paid us a visit" Tenma looked at the determined face of Kazuya and immediately judged that the boy wasn't kidding. This gave him quite the impression as it was very unusual for a boy his age to have this sort of expression.

"And you are?" Kazuya let go of the idiot who tried to catch his breath as soon as he crashed on the ground miserably.

"Your grandfather, Kurogane Tenma" he introduced himself.

"I see… I wished we could have met in better circ.u.mstances but as you can see, this house lacks quite a lot of discipline. If I knew that I would receive this kind of treatment here then I wouldn't have bothered to visit" Kazuya sighed as he pretended to have not known who or what the head of the Kurogane family looked like while trying to tell him how unkept his own clan was.

"You sure don't hold back don't you?" Tenma scoffed. s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o on the other hand was feeling quite nervous because even he couldn't talk to his father that way. He felt that all of his plans will fall apart if these two came into bad terms with each other but he could only keep silent he watched because he couldn't take a side. There was one side who was going to be displeased if he took a side and he needed to be amicable with both of them.

"Why would I hold back? I came here because of my father's persistence despite my mother's warnings. If I take a look at the situation now, my mother was right and my father didn't take measures to ensure my safety" he used Tenma to scold s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o who was keeping quiet from the side. Even though Suzaku approaching him was indeed an unexpected event, what about the elders who did nothing and pretended nothing was happening?

This was the first meeting of Kazuya and Tenma. Ever since that time, the elders were instructed to treat him as if he was s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o's first born. Nagisa had already pa.s.sed away and since s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o had yet to announce any plans of remarrying, his heir was indeed Kazuya who he had brought to meet with the head of the Kurogane clan.

"From his reputation, I a.s.sume that shooting is not an exception?" Tenma turned to s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o who smiled after hearing the question.

"Indeed. It only took him a little time before he was able to get used to shooting the guns from your collection father" s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o noticed Tenma's enthusiasm towards the topic since he made Kazuya try out shooting to impress Tenma who had a hobby of shooting and collecting firearms.

Three years have already pa.s.sed and each year, Kazuya would have been given a new nickname. It started out with Tennis. This was the first sport he tried out and competed in together with kendo. What happened after that was the a.s.surance that Sacred Forest Academy would have at least another sport in which they would bring home the champions.h.i.+p. This was all thanks to the monster who would completely dominate any sport he deemed worthy of trying out.

"Is that so? I would like to see it for myself then" Tenma stood and asked s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o to lead him to where Kazuya was.

s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o had succeeded in connecting these two once again. He had tried several times to do this but had very little success because of how these two met. Though Tenma acknowledged how superior Kazuya was compared to anyone remotely close to his age, he was still not a Kurogane but a Kouzuki.

The two entered the shooting range that Tenma built for himself and watched Kazuya who was silently picking out the next weapon to use. There was quite the number of guns in Tenma's collection so there were a lot of them to try out. He already felt the two enter his vicinity but pretended to be concentrated in his practice while picking out what s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o informed him to be one of Tenma's favorite handguns.

It was a custom desert eagle that surprised Kazuya when he first tried firing it. The amount of recoil was unexpected which made him miss his mark quite a bit compared to the other guns he tried out.

"Haha!" the old man made himself known after he saw what happened and approached the boy. "Looks like you aren't an exception to how this gun of mine here is special" even s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o was taken aback at hearing his father's laugh since this man barely showed any emotion.

"Grandfather" Kazuya politely bowed to greet him. This wasn't their first meeting and things compared to back then were much calmer. From the looks of things, Kazuya got along quite well with the members of the Kurogane family except those who were against s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o of course.

"You have a good eye… or did s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o tell you to pick out this gun?" Tenma raised his eyebrow and watched how Kazuya would react.

"No he didn't" Kazuya shook his head. "I've already tried some of the guns here and didn't even know that you arrived. You can check the surveillance cameras if you don't believe me" he turned towards the camera on the corner of the room that was installed their to make sure that the collection that was kept in this place were safe from being taken out after the incident with Lee a few years ago.

"Fair enough" Tenma looked convinced as he asked for the gun. Kazuya of course stepped aside and gave Tenma the gun. He wanted to see just what this old man who was known to be a world cla.s.s marksman who once brought home medals for compet.i.tive shooting was capable of.

*BANG BANG BANG* Kazuya was shocked at the old man's swift yet precise movements.

*BAM BAM BAM* It was if there was no strong recoil as Tenma used the force to s.h.i.+ft to his next target.

"(Impressive…)" Though it was very subtle, he could tell that Tenma could unconsciously invoke some internal energy which made this possible for him to do easily. This should have taken quite the amount of practice to perform with ease so despite the type of person Kurogane Tenma was, Kazuya began to respect him for at least being dedicated to something.

With how scarce mana is on Earth and his experience in living life with knowledge about mana and without it, only people like Tsuna and Kazuya knew just how much effort it could have taken for people to develop an unconscious control to increase their own prowess. People termed them as having extreme concentration or entering the zone but from Kazuya's perspective, the zone was akin to a state of mind where the one could increase what they were capable of in exchange for the exhaustion of their stamina.

Needless to say, Kurogane Tenma's performance impressed Kazuya as all the targets were hit accurately. The rapid rate of fire despite the gun's firepower and recoil didn't seem to faze the experienced Tenma as he made it shooting like some sort of art.

*clap clap clap* Kazuya applauded as he thought about trying to emulate the old man's movements. He wasn't sure on how to regulate his strength or movements until he tried it himself but he knew that he would need to practice for it.

Tenma of course didn't miss the pure interest the boy showed in his performance. This made him a take quite a positive impression on the boy since the people who dared step into this place only did it to get into his good graces. None of his relatives or descendants ever showed real interest in Tenma's hobbies so seeing the boy's enthusiasm over his performance was something refres.h.i.+ng for him.

s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o on the other hand was quite glad at the development he orchestrated. He wasn't sure at first on what advantages he could gain over Kazuya so he tried many different things to please the boy. To his surprise, what caught on the most was letting Kazuya do things that his mother wouldn't dare let her son do. This included things like letting him try out weapons like guns or swords and teaching him the ways on handling business matters which he didn't even think would interest the boy. His son was like a sponge that absorbed all the information and experiences that he was being shown which made it easier for s.h.i.+s.h.i.+o to take a major part in his son's growth.

"Not bad, Not bad at all!" Tenna laughed as he watched his grandson try to emulate the performance he did earlier. He felt the boy was quite brave to have tried an advanced technique like he did after just seeing it once.

Though Kazuya failed as expected, it was still impressive of him to at least miss the targets by a margin that wasn't too far off. What impressed Tenma even more was that the expression of determination he saw in Kazuya that disregarded what anyone else thought after his failed performance. The boy focused on nothing else but completing the task and could care less of what everyone else thought.

"You should stop there Kazuya" Tenma had called him by name only for the very first time so Kazuya couldn't help but listen. He wasn't intending on doing it but it seems like he had gained some kind of approval from this obstinate and paranoid old man. "That gun was customized for my use so you getting used to it won't do you much good" Tenma laughed.

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"Is that so?" Kazuya took another look at the gun before placing it on Tenma's hand.

The old man began lecturing him about his favorite gun and disa.s.sembled it whilst explaining the modifications he made on them as well as the effects they included. Even though he didn't expect Kazuya to understand what he was talking about, that didn't stop him from talking since he had no one else to talk to them with. Seeing the kid with a pure interest and actual talent in his hobby, he thought that it wouldn't be long until the child would come to him for advice when it came to this hobby of his.

"You should try out a couple of other guns first to see which one you would prefer" Tenma suggested a few others that he thought would be good for Kazuya. "Only when you've found the one you're most comfortable with should you think about your customization options. Of course, if you need help with it I wouldn't mind giving you a few pointers"

"I am interested but I don't know if I'll be able to practice much. Mom and grandpa don't like the thought of me using guns after all" Kazuya sighed.

"Why don't you join an official compet.i.tion then? They didn't object when you joined and won the archery tournament right? Guns are just the modern version of a bow and arrow which was renamed to a gun and bullet" Tenma scoffed at the mention of Kouzuki Kou and the boy's manner of referring to that old nemesis of his as grandfather. He felt that Kou wasn't worthy of a grandson like this and now that he had found something in common with Kazuya, he felt quite displeased at Kou being referred to in a more familiar manner.

"Hmm… I'll talk to them about it" Kazuya hesitated.

"There's no need to" Tenma waved his hand. "Aren't we family as well? I still know a few people in the a.s.sociation and I'll have you registered. You would need to pa.s.s a few tests since this will be your first time competing so you should stay here and I'll personally guide you" Tenma didn't want to take no for an answer and used the excuse as family to convince Kazuya.

"I guess there shouldn't be anything wrong about that" Kazuya smiled as if agreeing to go along with Tenma's scheme.

The old man smiled since Kazuya took the hint. He may have been a Kouzuki in name but the three of them inside the room knew that despite that fact, he still had the blood of Kurogane coursing through his veins. With their history of clas.h.i.+ng against each other and spending time with each other, the two sides were already aware that despite Kazuya's sterling reputation, those who really knew him would know that he had a devilish side in him which instilled fear to those who were against him.

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