Tenkai, understandably, had to concur with Artanthos.
So much had changed since the announcement that night that Tenkai thought his head was going to spin right off. He had been expecting this all to be little more than a few prize fights with a historic venue. Nothing could have prepared Tenkai for the announcement that the Heaven or Hell Tournament, the very one he had thought to have been long abandoned, had suddenly and abruptly made its return. And now, once more, he had been thrust into the middle of it.
From the looks of things, it didn't seem as if Arthur, the orchestrator of the team, had expected this to happen, either. He had reacted to the news far differently than Tenkai had. Several years ago in a past he had laid to rest, Tenkai focused much of his attention on the Heaven or Hell tournament, carrying out his own independent investigation into the motives behind the Foundation and its chairman, Elia Noah. Every year he would look deeper into the inner workings of the tournament, and every year he always came up short, no matter what strange circumstances were inevitably tied to its often explosive conclusion. When Noah supposedly "stepped down" from his position, the tournament itself faded with him, and Tenkai decided to move on to other matters that needed his attention. And with the betrayal that had resulted in the loss of his eye, the monk had thought he would never again set foot onto Leviathan Stadium or its host city, Latent.
Yet here he was now, and so too was the Heaven or Hell tournament and Elia Noah himself. It was as if fate had twisted itself in a knot, leading him back down familiar pathways to memories that were once little more than faded scars on his mind. Now, everythingwas returning to him, in ways he could never expect.
In true Heaven or Hell fashion, the first match turned out to be set in some outlandish arena with some sort of special condition that only complicated manners further. Though Tenkai had never cared for these shenanigans, he could not deny their appeal as an iconic staple of the tournament itself. Almost at the last minute, the condition had been thrust upon them as the tournament officials provided their "complimentary" three piece suits for them to wear at a tropical beachside wedding. Tenkai incredulously asked who the bride and groom were, only for the attendants to practically throw the suit at him, chattering off some quick legalese about "nondisclosure agreements" and inform him that he had an hour to get dressed. Tenkai had been caught so off guard that he was nearly late to meet with his team.
Ultimately, Tenkai seemed to have taken a page from the same book that Artanthos had, opting to find some way to equip his armor on top of his three-piece suit. For the Hellknight, this didn't seem like a difficult task. He had simply worn his entire suit of armor over his suit, and ultimately came out of the ordeal looking little different than he would haf otherwise. Tenkai, on the other hand, had only a few pieces of armor as opposed to being cap-a-pied, which led to a much more awkward assembly of items. The suit essentially replaced the kimono and hakama that Tenkai wore over his bodysuit and under his kote and chest/shoulder strap where his shoulder armor was mounted. Much like the arming points that had been tailored into Artanthos' suit, Tenkai's suit had also been "custom tailored", it appeared, with belt anchor points that clipped to his utility belt in order to keep the whole get-up stable and allow room for his hydraulic scabbard arm. It also allowed him to button the lowest few buttons just enough for him to wear the jacket off the shoulder like his kimono, keeping his left side exposed and making it more comfortable to wear his rosary. The white shirt underneath did still obscure most of his psychoreactive bodysuit, but that wasn't necessarily a hindrance. Even the pants were a relaxed fit, with enough give that Tenkai could roll them up and stuff them into his suneate without much issue.
The downside? Well...he looked absolutely ridiculous.
"Arthur, I sincerely hope you had good reason for this," said a rather displeased Tenkai, standing there atop the raft with his arms folded. He had been instructed to stand just a foot or so off to Artanthos' forward left, opposite the purloined cargo. Arthur told him he had to stand in exactly that spot, positioned "just so" in order to achieve perfect balance on the raft. In essence, Tenkai was being used as a counter-balance so that Arthur's raft would sail smoothly to their destination. The monk silently hoped to himself that their opponents wouldn't see them like this.
Thankfully, they had disembarked their...vessel before making their way up the hill where the "wedding party" was being held. Following alongside Artanthos, Tenkai came to a stop just as the opposing team was within sight, and it was at that moment that another stroke of memory hit him once he laid eyes on an unexpectedly familiar face.
"Dzan Streea."
Tenkai spoke the name coldly, without any malice nor the righteous indignation that one would expect from some zealous holy warrior coming face-to-face with Gaia's Champion of Khorne. It was a matter-of-fact declaration of recognition. There was no mistaking it either way. Even if there was anything different enough about Dzan's appearance from the cyberpunk he had known back then in that abandoned past, the soul told no lies. And now that Tenkai could actually seethat soul, there was no room for doubt.
The last time Tenkai had seen Dzan Streea, it was in the streets of Durem in the wake of another wanton bloodbath that left the streets aflame following a tussle the cyberpunk had with a former GPD police officer by the name of Lokas Samandar. Tenkai had intervened, but the two of them had never crossed blades. After a tense standoff, Dzan secured his own escape, and the officer allowed him to go after telling him never to return to Gaia's great gothic city. The monk had concurred, and that had been the last he ever heard from the Champion of Khorne.
Now he was here, standing before him and his teammates, as one of their first round opponents. Whatever stroke of fate had led to Dzan returning to Gaia was a question that burned as hotly as where he had been since then, and what he had become. Was he more or less the same rebellious hive-ganger that took whatever blessing from the Blood God that suited him, or had he gone deeper down that path of devotion?
This, ultimately, was a question that would have mattered to the man Tenkai once was. Today, that meant nothing to him. Whether he was notorious hive-scum or an exalted Champion of Khorne, the only truth that mattered here was that Dzan was his opponent. Tenkai no longer cared to split hairs and philosophize.
Arthur already seemed to have an idea of who he wished to fight, and Artanthos was still sizing things up. It was likely he would be fine with anyone who wished to cross blades with him, but in Tenkai's case, this was not up for debate. If this was little more than the hand of fate twisting its fingers on the board, then what better place to start than with the one man he had never managed to face in battle?
"I'll be your opponent," Tenkai said simply.
