There has always been an air of the pioneering spirit in Nohas.

As of late, though, the atmosphere of this world has become fraught with tension: disputes breaking out everywhere, and powerful divisions were beginning to make their move, like titans awakening from their long slumber.

And as they rise, those in their wake see what is happening.

"What's happening in this world, now?" Li asked, as he was reading through the division's reports.

The Grand Duelists had focused on internal affairs as of late, and thus only sensed these happenings in the wake of Li bringing two new recruits into their division.

Thanks to his years of experience, Li was able to figure out that something was going on. They were somewhat late to the party, but thanks to Li's insight, were able to catch up quickly.

"I don't know where and how it began, but it doesn't look like it's going to be ending any time soon," Klay replied – he had already looked over the reports his scouts and information network sent back to him, and was able to give the leader of the Grand Duelists the condensed version. "What's clear about this is that there is an ongoing conspiracy."

"Definitely. These events aren't random – there is some sort of organization to these events and an outcome being sought."

"We ought to look into this further.. but you know that the succession issue is currently sapping our manpower. And I can't get GD Security stretched too thin by doing this and keeping house in Carter at the same time."

"That dick-waving contest is still going on?" Li asked in angry disbelief that despite the incoming conflict, his awakeners were still at each other's throats about who should succeed the division.

LJ and Connor were too busy keeping each other in check to get their respective factions together and focus on the enemy outside the division – if anybody from another division saw what was going on, it would make a pretty pathetic picture.

"I recommend you putting your foot down and settling the situation, even if it is a temporary measure," Klay said, to the old man's surprise.

Klay never makes such a direct request to Li: nearly all of the day-to-day affairs of the Grand Duelists are his responsibility, and only addresses the leader when a situation is serious enough that warrants his attention.

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That's the way he deals with such matters – such a request means that the schism has grown so great that the influence of actual officials within the Grand Duelists is decreasing.

It would mean that he would have to ask Li for help to solve this particular problem.

Thankfully, the old man leading the Grand Duelists picked up on this quickly.

"Understood, I shall address LJ and Connor personally. Speaking of which, has Jake and Liam sent any word from Evergreen?"

"No, they haven't sent a message in."

"They haven't taken care of the problem there? Has Evergreen sent a missive or messenger as well?"

"None yet."

"Interesting.." the old man thought aloud. 'When I sent Jake, I did it knowing that he'll take his time when returning, let him enjoy his freedom.'

'Too much time has passed, more than what I thought, though – and with Evergreen making no contact.. the world has become quite grim.

I should begin making preparations – I cannot let Klay handle all of this on his own.'

"Let's send a messenger to Evergreen," he said, and Klay nodded.

***

Thanks to what happened to Vastillo, Hammer absorbed all of the remaining troops into his unit.

With only one captain left to lead Froad, Hammer found himself in charge of the entire division's army – right when a nightmare was beginning to sweep through it.

"They're like ghosts."

"I'm about to fall asleep..."

"Lucky you. Dying in your sleep is a better way to go than seeing them."

"How long do we have to live like this?"

The morale among the soldiers of Froad was low, and dropping quickly due to the nightmare scenario they found themselves in.

"We don't know when they'll show up again, so we have to keep watch like this.."

"And since we don't know where they are, we can't attack them first.."

"After what happened to our scouting parties? Don't remind me."

"And they're freaking strong. Watching him wielding a sword covered in blood, he's like a devil from hell."

"What the hell are we supposed to do? Do we have to keep getting pushed around like this?"

It is a waking nightmare.

"We should have killed those two Grand Duelists from the beginning.."

"We underestimated them and paid the price."

"That rabid dog is the biggest problem."

"No, as far as I'm concerned, Evergreen's vice-master is the worst."

"What do you mean? That rabid dog is scarier. Nothing can touch him, and he says all these weird things to throw you off."

"No, the quiet one is scarier. You never see him coming."

"The one from Evergreen is the worst, because those two don't care if you get killed or injured or knocked out, they just want you out of the fight. Evergreen's vice-master? Anyone who stands in his way is dead. He always makes sure whoever he faces is killed."

"You're wrong," another soldier added. "Evergreen's vice-master is fighting on emotion. He just wants to kill. The other two? They like breaking bones, joints, and maiming. They want to make sure that whoever survives becomes a burden on our division."

The argument continued as to who the biggest nightmare was: Jake, Liam or Song.

"Never expected to fight this way.."

"We should have used any means we could to catch them by any means before.."

"We got careless and we got overconfident. Back then, Evergreen was almost defeated – who knew that the people who escaped would make a comeback like this?"

After escaping the awakener from Musashi, the three awakeners returned after several days.

And once they did, they immediately started a fight with Froad troops whenever they could: so far, it hasn't been a big deal.

They expected that those survivors wouldn't be able to return, much less fight back, due to their condition.

Also, three people against an army? They'd have to be insane to try to face Froad head-on.

Which is why they resorted to guerrilla tactics. Hit hard, hit fast, then vanish.

They don't even bother going to the enemy camp, just pick off Froad troops at the outskirts, then using their superior footwork to escape.

Twenty days made a world of difference.

"The problem is, we don't know when they'll show up. Morning, afternoon, evening, once a day, twice a day, or none; it's getting the troops really antsy."

"Because we've been moving to their pace ever since then. I mean, Captain Hammer is having a difficult time now, due to all these raids."

"I suppose so. Against something like this, we're helpless."

"You should see Captain Hammer."

"Yeah, once upon a time, they're running from us. Now, though, even Captain Hammer doesn't go out on patrols with an escape route all set up."

"Isn't the guy from Musashi coming back here?"

"That's the best chance we have – wait until then and turtle up, keep the damage to a minimum."

"I hate being dependent on those divisions."

"Can't blame Hammer. Nobody slept a wink for a week after we found lots of our fellows dead in their sleep."

"Hope that Musashi guy would show up soon."

The sound of cheering in the distance caught their attention, and the awakeners of Froad turned to the gate of their camp to see previously despairing awakeners recover their morale at the sight of a familiar face.

Cheers of "Musashi!" echoed around the Froad camp as Kinjo Toshihiro returned.

***

"Bunch of idiots."

"Indeed. I mean, look at them, rolling out the red carpet for someone who doesn't mind killing them to get to us."

"This kind of ass-kissing is what makes divisions like Musashi arrogant."

Jake and Liam were having a whispered conversation while they were scoping out the Froad camp, and saw the return of the awakener from Musashi.

Both of them thought of Froad's eager welcome as brought on by their guerrilla campaign: the samurai cut down a lot of them just to get to Evergreen – he even treats the Froad troops as ants more than allies.

Liam just shook his head at the pitiful sight, and when someone joined them to spy on the camp, he and Jake had to turn at all the murderous intent their companion was throwing around.

"Let's go get him now," Song said viciously, his anger clearly showing through the power flaring through him.

"This isn't the time, be patient," Jake said, hoping to stop Song from just marching to the camp and killing everyone.

A friendship grew between the two Grand Duelists and Song during their rest and recovery after their first encounter with the awakener from Musashi.

"Can't help it, though," Song replied with gritted teeth, the calm level-headed vice-master gone, replaced with a vicious animal seeking vengeance for all the lost awakeners of his division.

"It's just a couple of hours, we need to go at the right time. His presence means they'll drop their guard. A few more hours and we can cut loose – remember, the coming night will be long," Jake tried to reassure Song that it would be a bloodbath, but not when they struck at the wrong time.

The period movie reject coming back and the morale of Froad restored meant that now wouldn't be a good time to strike – they had to wait for deep in the night to make sure that the troops of Froad would be exhausted.

Song grunted his assent, though the depth of his resentment was immeasurable.

Countless awakeners from Evergreen lost their lives due to Froad and this man from Musashi.

Every life lost was engraved onto his heart, and he used those deaths to fuel his anger and vengeance.

'In a couple of hours, this will all be over.'

***

Later that night, the troops taking night watch around the Froad camp were roused by an unnatural sound.

The revving of an engine?

It is a sound that doesn't quite fit within Nohas proper, a rumbling noise that grew louder as the closer it approached, along with the darkest hours before the dawn arrived.

"What's that sound?"

"What's that?"

Froad's troops, nerves frayed at the surprise attacks and one that could happen any time, heard the noise coming and began expecting the worst.

And as the rumble came closer, so did the sound of.. was that singing?

"Get your motor running.. HEAD OUT ON THE HIGHWAY!"

The voice came loud and clear, despite the rumbling sound accompanying it.

"Looking for adventure.. AND WHATEVER COMES MY WAY!"

The voice was also as strange as the bizarre rumble that came with it: if it wasn't a battle cry, they couldn't understand what it was meant for.

"What... what?! Who is it? What are you saying?"

"Yeah, darling, go make it happen! Take the world in a love embrace! Fire all my guns at once and explode into space!"

The troops of Froad were gathering, and readied themselves – facing the source of the rumble and the odd singing.

And then, the wooden gate of the camp was blown open, blowing away several Froad troops that were unfortunate enough to be close to the gate.

The first row of troops covered their eyes as a blinding light emanated from the gate, and after a crash, the light subsided to reveal a fantastic sight.

Jake Smithson was on a motorcycle, carrying his diamond sword on one hand and the bike's handlebars on another.

He greeted the Froad troops in song.

"Born to be wild!"

And then the attack began.

***

The sound of battle broke the midnight peace in the mountains surrounding Evergreen.

Despite the fear of the troops, they were still able to move in formation, minimizing their losses as Jake drove around on his motorcycle, treating it as an iron horse, cutting down Froad troopers during each time he passed them.

The troops from Froad tried to make a line of soldiers to defend against guerrilla attacks, but against Jake Smithson's newest toy, they were nothing more than sitting ducks for his sword, or pins for his bike to bowl over.

What kind of madman would have an idea so ridiculous like dragging a motorcycle onto the battlefield?

The troops further away were able to make out the one behind the wheel, and saw that Jake Smithson was laughing each time he brought the bike back around and cut down a group of Froad's troops.

"Damn it, the mad dog made it here!" they shouted.

Jake was sitting confidently on the driver's seat, the rabid dog on the bike carving an impressive sight as he tore through the ranks on his motorcycle, using its momentum together with his diamond Swiftstone to cut down troops as a reaper's scythe cuts through wheat.

Unlike before, while Jake was going for a guerrilla attack, this time, he was now here to end the battle once and for all.

The troopers who shouted about the mad dog tried to run, but Jake caught up to them pretty quickly.

"Damn right, bitches! The dog's here!"

Despite the bike having an option to be driven automatically, Jake decided to just have one hand on the handlebar and another on his sword.

Sure, letting the bike do the work while he grabbed the Swiftstone with both hands would be efficient.. but Jake wanted to do the job and look damn cool while doing it.

'Who knew you were worth that much money?' Jake thought gleefully, as throughout the guerrilla attacks, Jake was able to collect an astronomical amount of points due to fighting awakeners giving him more points than hunting monsters.

Those points were then used to buy items at the Superstore: most of those points went towards purchasing equipment for Liam and Song.

Even better, thanks to all these purchases, Jake got his purchase performance up enough for him to get that sweet 30% off on the 2k Miles Velocity Series Roadster.

700,000 points all went towards the roadster, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

He had to spare himself from thinking about the exquisite workmanship, finely-crafted details, and amazing performance the bike had, because he had to compute how much points he'd spent so far.

Yeah, he fought like a man possessed.

Fight, earn points, go shopping.

Aside from minimal breaks for eating and sleeping, those were the two things in Jake's life.

Those two things brought him joy, making him wish that he could live in that way for as long as he could.

'Make money, go shopping.

This is the life.

Lots of other things to buy today, too.

Once this is done, I'm going to lie down a bit and go shopping afterward.'

After another pass where he cut down several Froad troopers in one slash, he turned the bike around for another attack, only to see someone standing in his way.

"Oh, hey! It's the period movie reject! It's been a while," Jake said with glee as he maneuvered the bike to evade the man, and then turning to drive away from him.

'Sucker,' Jake thought as he heard powered footsteps in his wake – the Musashi awakener was following him, and keeping up with the speed of his motorcycle.

"I'll make sure to kill you this time!" Toshihiro shouted violently.

Jake reacted by turning back to him and replying nonchalantly, just like last time.

"Yeah, yeah; whatever, buddy," he answered with a snort before abruptly stopping the bike near the entrance to the camp.

The samurai stopped, and Jake gave him a look.

"Unfortunately, I'm not the one on your dance card tonight, period movie reject. Someone else took the spotlight from me."

From the shadows, a figure with a coat emerged from behind Jake.

"Oh yeah, you're not going to want to know how much I spent on this guy. Once you do, you can just put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye," Jake said with glee, as the man with a coat raised his head to reveal his identity.

Song, the Vice-master of Evergreen, was now looking at Kinjo Toshihiro with absolute murder in his eyes and the weapon of his crackling with energy.

"Play nice, you two," Jake said before he sped off.

***