By citizen_lion (the PDF version has panels taken from the manga to illustrate the exact details of various scenes and why they all fit together logically in this fic, and also I like to read fiction on my phone that's why I always format my own writing in PDF's with phone readers in mind 
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Note: this fanfic aims to close some mysteries / plot holes in the manga History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi. How could Hayato be friend with Jenazad if Jenazad showed any tendency for evil after leading his people as a hero? How could Hayato lose his arm shields in the fight with Jenazad if that fight was just a spar between friends, when a serious drawn out fight with Oganosuke later did not make Hayato lose his arm shields? The only sensible explanation is that the fight actually took place many years after they were friends, during this time Jenazad had changed and descended into madness. The fight was not a spar but a brief and intense life-and-death struggle, which ended when the two came to a deeper understanding.
"The greatest hatred is often between close friends, when one friend betrayed the other." Hayato idly mused as he stepped out of the cramped confine of a Tu-124, a tiny two-engine airliner retrofitted from a military model to serve short distance flights. It was a wonder how Indonesia airline would keep a flight route to Tidat, the tiny kingdom that seceded from it nearly 30 years ago. The "thousand-island nation" has nothing that it particularly needed from the much poorer "hundred-island kingdom" isolated to its southernmost border, facing the Timor Sea on one side, the Indian Ocean on another side, and far away from any major landmass. Indeed, Indonesia could strangle Tidat in a hundred ways, squeezing the island kingdom dry economically or simply sending fighter jets to bomb anything taller than a mud hut to the ground. It could, in theory, but it did not, because of one man.
Hayato knew that there are people who have pushed themselves far beyond the conventional limits of the human body, who could take down a military base with nothing more than fists, or a blade, and a bit of preparation time and tactics. And then there are a rarefied league of a handful, out of the five billions people in this world, with the power to cross the sea on their feet alone, stroll into the front door of a nation's presidential palace in broad daylight, and massacre everything, everyone, that stands in their way.
Hayato Furinji, the Elder of Ryozanpaku, the one whom the martial arts world called "Invincible Superman," was one such individual. But Hayato knew that he was not alone in this league. There was at least one more, and the Indonesian government knew this too. That was why he took the plane instead of running across the sea to get to Tidat. The trip from Japan would have tired him, and Hayato was under no illusion that he could win this fight easily.
The plane ticket was far too expensive though, when the entire living expense of his dojo and the extra costs of raising his granddaughter Miu ride on the bone-setting and acupuncture income of his friends Akisame and Ma. At least the villagers who summoned his aid pooled together enough to buy him a trip back on a boat. "Sorry everyone, even this old man needs money sometimes..." And yet, Hayato could not explain why he was here, in Tidat. The message in the letter calling for his urgent help, from a small village where he stayed in his last trip here 30 years ago, was clear as day. But facts and Hayato's own beliefs just could not reconcile.
Silkwat Jenazad, the hero of Tidat, had become insane. For ten years already he had terrorized the small island kingdom, using his charisma to divide his people, but not for conquest-he could do so with just a few words, so great was his prestige-but to pitch his own people against themselves, to create conflicts for its own sake. Jenazad has begun to call himself the demon god of Tidat, but his people did revere him as an angelic savior once, which was why it took ten years for someone to call for help.
But furthermore, Jenazad was one of the very few people whom Hayato could call friends. In his long life, people either feared Hayato, or depended on him like children on a father. Jenazad was different, he did not need anything from Hayato, and he was almost as strong. 30 years ago, Jenazad rallied his people into an effective guerilla force, and freed his own country long before Hayato had time to respond to the first call for help, so Hayato's previous trip to Tidat turned into something of a vacation. Tidat was already at peace by the time he arrived, so Hayato made friends with the people's Hero.
Hayato idly recalled the memories of those days. Jenazad was short and thin compared to Hayato himself, but radiating confidence and charisma with his every step. Hayato could still see in his mind’s eye a handsome, smiling face looking not a day over twenty-year old, when Jenazad was already in his 50s at the time. Of course Hayato was 20 years older still, but he had never remembered himself looking 30 years younger than his true age at any point in life. Hayato respected Jenazad's knowledge about medicine, martial arts, and military tactics. They shared a great deal, techniques, wisdom, and philosophy, in those warm sunny days sitting on the branches of tall trees and watching the people living in peace. But most of all, Hayato remembered Jenazad as a true hero, who always gave his mortal enemies a chance to surrender, even when his enemies were armed with machine guns and prepped for war, not for a fight.
Too much thinking hurt his mind. Hayato preferred the honest, straightforward methods. "Those who think too much wastes opportunities to get stronger." With that in mind, Hayato leaped up to the highest building he could see, drew a prodigious amount of air into his lung, tensed his whole body for a full second, prepared his vocal cords to shape the impending blow of compressed air with the power of a tank-buster bomb into one single word: JJEEENNAAAZZZZZAAAADDDD!
The silence after was complete. In the thirty seconds after that pronouncement, all living things in the small town where Hayato was in simply stopped, like woodland animals freezing in terror when a tiger makes itself known. No, it was not just that small town, or the island that town was on. No, an unrestrained, full-powered scream from the Invincible Superman would not be limited to such a paltry area as one island. The shockwave of that scream could be heard across the one hundred islands that made up the kingdom of Tidat. The reason why Hayato stood at such a high vantage point was not only so that his scream could travel further, but also to make sure that no child would have to take the direct force of that scream, but only an echo from the trees and mountains.
The only thing breaking that silence in Hayato's superhuman senses was a tiny noise, like the fluttering wing beats of a hummingbird, and an almost imperceptible sign of motion on the horizon. That motion was so tiny that it would seem like a trick of the eye in a hot day or perhaps just the back and forth flitting of a mosquito. To a common person, the air would seem to ripple for less than an eye blink, and they would never have the chance to perceive what actually happened even if that motion was right beside them. But Hayato could see a figure dashing across the water from another island, his steps shorter but his footfall lighter than those of Hayato himself, causing that noise like a hummingbird's wings. The figure jumped off the water, barely making a splash, then dashed from roof-top to roof-top, tree-top to tree-top. High-level masters can cover hundreds of meters in a single leap, but even the elite among masters, like his two friends in Ryozanpaku, still needed to make arc-shaped jumps that leave them most visible and vulnerable at the top of each arc. No, Silkwat Jenazad could propel himself directly, bullet-like, in perfectly straight line from one foot hold to the next at the edge of the sound barrier.
Hayato waited until Jenazad stood opposite him, balancing easily on the very tip of a 50-meter tall balau tree, before he spoke, his voice a dangerously slow murmur, addressing an old friend.
"One chance to explain Jenazad. Why?"
“Why what?” Jenazad answered, his voice friendly and measured, pitched perfectly to give just a faint hint of a challenge. Hayato could imagine his once friend smiling underneath the wooden traditional mask that he wore constantly.
“You divided your people and incited wars. You trained an army of Silat warriors, but you make them fight to the death and then kill the survivors yourself.” Hayato did not see any point in mincing words. Either way this would end in a fight. Hayato never killed his opponents, but he intended to make Jenazad understand exactly why he would be beaten so completely, so painfully, that even his spirit as a martial artist would be broken.
“You mean I did everything I could to keep this island and its people alive? Look around you! This place has nothing on it but trees and saltwater. What do you think kept the Dutch from stripping it down to the bedrock and displacing the people into a life of poverty and slow death in Jakarta?”
Hayato was momentarily stunned. Jenazad has always been an orator, and his skill with words and voice has always troubled Hayato. He recalled the memory of 30 years ago. While Hayato comforted people with a quiet yet overwhelming dignity, Jenazad inspired those around him with flamboyance and drama. The people of Tidat looked up to Jenazad, but Hayato could sense in his friend’s eye a deeply troubled soul, hidden behind the practiced voice of a thespian and a set of ornate wooden masks that Jenazad carved himself.
Sensing that Hayato was unbalanced by his retort, Jenazad continued. “The answer is Silat. The only viable export of Tidat is its people, the best soldiers you can find anywhere. We have both fought wars Hayato. You knew just as well as I do that rulers don’t give a rat’s ass about whether people live or die, or whether something is fair or just. They would, everytime without fail, exploit and consume instead of integrate, as long as they get to expand their power for the lowest cost.”
“Wrong!” Hayato regained some of his composure. In truth, he was not much of a thinker, but Hayato could feel on an emotional level, if not quite understood, the cracks in Jenazad’s words, like heroism bended out of shape into irrationality. “The people of Tidat is suffering, Jenazad. They called for my help.” Hayato brandished the call for help written on cheap parchment paper in neat but simple cursive.
At the sight of the letter, Jenazad bursted into laughter. “Kakaakakakakka! What do you think? A terrorized people called upon a stranger to help them defeat their own hero, who has now turned into a demon. That is a lovely story no?”
Hayato’s eyes narrowed.
“I wrote that letter you old coot. I called you here for a fight. That bit about having just enough money for a boat trip was quite convincing no?”
“You are truly insane.” Hayato grinded out the words.
“No no, you know better than that. I intend to prove that the supreme Silat is the best and only way to train warriors in this world, and what better way to prove it than to defeat the Invincible Superman?”
“Shut up!” Hayato roared with enough force to make Jenazad’s mouth clamp shut instinctively. “This island is just a rock Jenazad! If all the people here move away, they will learn and they will survive. The world is at peace. Soldier for hire is not the only way to make a living for anyone anymore.”
Jenazad sighed and took off his mask. Beneath it was a face still not a day older than twenty. Jenazad and Hayato looked the definition of opposites. Hayato was nearly 7 feet tall and half again as wide as Jenazad, but his skin was lined with age and his beard was long. Jenazad was of barely average height and build, but with an ageless face. But the greatest difference was in their eyes. Hayato’s were simple, but bright and hopeful, while Jenazad’s were fiercely intelligent yet empty, like a permanent thousand-yard stare.
“I know we would disagree Hayato. That makes the fight good.” Jenazad put back his mask after showing his true face to his friend again. Hayato raised his arms in quiet acknowledgement, and calmly fastened the strings of his tekkou forearm shields, the traditional battlewear of the Furinji clan since Japan’s ancient Warring States period.
In the same instance that the string of Jenazad’s mask snapped back into place behind his ears, he seemed to disappear. Jenazad could accelerate to his top speed in an instant due to his smaller build. The force of his feet kicking out caused the giant balau tree to bend nearly double, and snap back like a bow string, creating a crack of displaced air like a grenade going off. But Hayato followed Jenazad’s movement easily, as his top speed was actually just as high.
“Kakakakkaka! You know why I chose this place for our fight?” Jenazad shouted and laughed, the sound grating and tinged with madness. “Be…cause… of… this!”
Hayato sensed in that moment a change in the sound, a lengthening and distortion. He also noticed that as Jenazad bounced from one balau tree to the next, the snap of the tree being pushed back get stronger, until each stomp of Jenazad’s feet completely broke a giant tree in half. The wind snap and breaking wood became a chaotic background to Jenazad’s words, which seemed to stop coming from where Hayato anticipated it should be.
Jenazad was standing about 100m away from Hayato in the beginning, and was circling his opponent as the fight started. At his top speed close to that of sound, Jenazad could close the 100m distances and launch his attack in less than 1/3rd of a second. But he had used the elastic balau trees like catapults, progressively resonating his power until his speed far exceeded that of sound. That was why his laughter sounded lengthened and came from the wrong direction. Hayato deduced all that in 1/10th of a second from a lifetime of battle experience, and he turned, using the simplest motion possible to match Jenazad’s surprising speed.
The subsequent flurry of blows, too fast to see and sounded like a volley of machine gun shots, ended in a draw, but Jenazad was surprised to see Hayato fending off his opening gambit.
“See Jenazad. You cannot get stronger if you have so much hate! I can sense your attacks just from that!”
“Bullshit!” Jenazad launched at Hayato again, using the force of Hayato’s pushing him back in the previous attack plus a well-timed stomp at the top of a balau tree to exceed the speed of sound again.
This time Hayato was fully ready, despite Jenazad’s closing the distance in less than 1/5th of a second. Another flurry of blow ended in a draw, but Jenazad could see that Hayato was much more in control of the exchange this time around, and his advantage of speed was fading fast.
As if reading Jenazad’s thought, Hayato laughed. “And two can play at this game!” Hayato easily timed his jump to resonate with another tree’s elasticity. He pushed back with all his might, intending to show Jenazad an even higher top speed. But the tree simply gave way under Hayato’s immense bulk before having a chance to bounce back.
Hayato flipped his body to reorient himself so that he would land on his feet. To do this in a dense jungle on a rocky island, even the Invincible Superman needed a split-second glance behind him, and by the time he turned back, Jenazad’s two feet filled his vision, and all Hayato could do was raising his arms in a boxer’s stance and took the full force of Jenazad’s dropkick on his tekkou.
Jenazad’s kick propelled Hayato back toward the ground like a missile. The impact was so great that it left tiny ripples on the surface of the metal said to contain the secrets of steel, yet Hayato’s forearms took that force without damage, and his legs took the impact on the ground easily, his feet cracking stones in a small crater.
But Jenazad did not let up. Right after connecting with the dropkick, he reached out to the closest tree branch and spun around it to regain momentum and swung himself after Hayato. Armed out-stretched and fists curled into claws, Jenazad assumed the stance of a tiger and landed his full body weight on Hayato a split-second after, deepening the crater in the rock.
Serangan Harimau! (Tiger Fists)
Jenazad lashed out with wild abandon, looking for an opening in Hayato’s guard and scratch his eyes out or push his nose ridge into his brain, but incredibly, even from an unbalanced position, Hayato continued to fend off Jenazad’s every attack. Jenazad could see that Hayato was frantic and no longer in control, but his arm moved precisely to intercept every lethal claw just the same.
“How could he keep calm after all that?” Jenazad’s inner voice screamed, and he withdrew his attack, blocking his abdomen instinctively as he sensed, if not saw, a blurring fast motion. From a blind angle right under Jenazad’s attack, Hayato had kicked out, splitting his leg and pushing it almost completely straight up in a feat of unimaginable flexibility for someone nearly the size of a bear.
Korui Nuki! (Strike the Isolated Stronghold)
The force of Hayato’s kick crashed against Jenazad’s arms and knees, propelling him more than 200m upward in less than a second. Jenazad had curled inward like a cannon ball the moment he sensed this attack, so his body was dense enough to resist injury. But Jenazad began to have doubt, as he unfurled his limbs in mid air and look back down at Hayato, who is now standing in the middle of the crater looking straight up.
“I say again Jenazad. Your weakness is your restless heart.”
“I could say the same. Your weakness is your complacent heart. The fact that we are even despite your longer experience...” Jenazad replied as he floated back down, closing the distance. To both of them, the speed of free fall felt like a slow moment of rest.
“But we are NOT even!” Hayato screamed and resumed the fight with a prodigious leap upward, spinning his body like a drill and aiming straight for Jenazad, who was still floating in mid air. Even someone like Jenazad cannot truly fly if there was nothing under his feet. Hayato intended to end the fight here, by catching Jenazad off-guard and dealing serious internal damage with a direct blow to the guts. None of Hayato’s techniques were designed to be fatal, and this one did not break that rule, as he aimed to hit Jenazad with two spinning fists instead of knife hands.
Fuurinji Chigiguruma! (Wheel of Thousand Trees)
“Ka… kakakaka!” Right before Hayato’s attack connected, when Jenazad seemed helpless, he reached behind his belt. The actions within the next instant unfolded so fast that if a camera were to close up on the two combatants, all it would capture was a glint of metal and a series of sparks.
In that instant, 1/10th of a second, Jenazad drew two Kerambit knives laced with poisons from the deadliest snakes, insects, plants, and jellyfishes that a tropical island untouched by industry could offer, and met Hayato’s fist. Jenazad knew that even if he took Hayato’s technique head on, he would be severely injured, but Hayato would surely die if the knives cut deeply enough. Hayato knew this too and changed his attack into a defense in mid-air, unwrapping his body from the shape of a spinning drill and met Jenazad’s rapid slashes with his tekkou.
In the world of martial arts, there was a saying that using a weapon that you are skilled with multiplies your rank three times. By drawing a lethal weapon, Jenazad turned a position of complete disadvantage into a position of complete advantage. Hayato cannot escape the natural law of inertia, and his body had to continue its inexorable trajectory upward pass Jenazad. Inevitably, Jenazad would have a free hit on Hayato’s leg and feet and the battle would be over. Hayato twisted his body all the while, trying to face Jenazad at all time until he could create some distance, but even Hayato knew that the margin of error was simply too low.
That was when Jenazad dropped one knife and grabbed onto Hayato’s arm shields, spinning his entire body around Hayato’s arm extremely quickly and using this momentum to unbalance his opponent.
Hantu Glundung Pringis! (Rolling Grinning Ghosts)
All Hayato could see was the grinning demonic mask spinning around every axes on his body, and he knew that Jenazad was still holding a knife laced with enough exotic venoms to kill hundreds of people. Hayato tensed his body instinctively, so that Jenazad’s motion would no longer throw off his own, and also to establish a frame of reference to Jenazad's circular swinging. Jenazad was waiting for this exact moment when Hayato’s body tensed up, and flicked his Kerambit out in an extremely quick arc that even Hayato could not dodge…
Hayato’s arm shields fell away, their strings cut, and the two fighters separated in another moment of peace as they floated down from the sky again.
“Your last block was sloppy. And now you lost your shields. It takes just one wound from my Kerambit to end it all.” Jenazad pointed out matter-of-factly.
“Wrong again! Your bloodlust left you wide open!” Hayato gleefully grinned at Jenazad as he gracefully rotated his body during free fall, rested two feet lightly at the tip of a balau tree, and pushed! Hayato used just enough force this time not to break the tree and reached the sound barrier in an instance despite his bulk. Hayato cocked both hands back and flew toward Jenazad, who raised his remaining Kerambit in anticipation.
“Fool! Just one nick from this blade is fatal! No unarmed technique can trade with that!” Jenazad screamed. But Hayato came on regardless. Jenazad realized too late that Hayato never aimed for him at all, but for a spot on the ground just out of Jenazad’s reach.
I was saving my strength for this! Fuurinji Tenkou Ryuujin! (Dragon God of Nature)
Hayato Furinji impacted the jungle floor with the force of a Tallboy earthquake bomb and drove straight into the earth. He then exploded his arms outward in a figure-eight pattern of punches, scattering rocks, dirt, and trees in all directions.
Jenazad was caught fully in the explosion. With nothing to hold on to, Jenazad was carried away like a leaf in the wind. He could vaguely sense Hayato leaping after him, but the chaos of ground zero was simply too much, and he could not pinpoint Hayato’s position. It was all Jenazad could do to arrest his movement and land on his hands and feet, gouging out long ridges in the earth and finally stopping against the face of a giant Buddha statue. Jenazad realized blinkingly that this was the spot where the fight began, and he has lost his knife. As Jenazad looked up, Hayato was standing before him, bruised and drenched in sweat, coat fallen down and arm shields missing, but there was no mistaking the look of victory in his eyes.
“The ship’s leaving. Let’s finish this.”
“Wait! Why did you not finish me off just now?” Jenazad screamed out, something like indignity colored his voice.
“Because you dropped one knife just so you could show me a new technique… If you kept slashing in mid-air with both knives, you might have struck my leg or feet eventually.”
“Kekek…. You saw through that too. You bastard. How can you always see through me like that.”
“You are not truly lost yet Jenazad. Do not fall down the path of the demon. I have always known that you are of the killing fist, but to kill when necessary is different from killing just for its own sake.”
“You still refuse to understand? I know exactly what I am doing! This place would fall apart without me and you know it. You can travel the world to correct it, but after you leave everyone behind, things will be broken again. Someone needs to do more than just correct the world, but to run it. Doing that is hard starting from a place of nothing like this. All I know is my supreme Silat and I teach it to everyone who wants to learn, my way! Nobody wrote a letter calling you for help because nobody needed your help here!”
“You intend to keep Tidat in the Dark Age forever and turn its people into an army of mercenaries. You have no right to do that.”
“If I intended any of that, the royal family of Tidat and even of Indonesia would be all dead by now. But Tidat will always remain a bastion of warriors, even you will not stop that.”
“Give the people a choice. If anyone wants out of your scheme, they must have a peaceful way out.”
“Don’t presume to teach me how to run a country when you couldn’t even keep a family together. But yes, a way out, people do have that. I have no need for those with no willpower anyway.”
“Remember Jenazad.” Hayato warned. “I will surely return if people keep dying.”
“Kakakka… Many people died during the colonial war. Many more died in famine… I remember them all...” Jenazad leaned back on his haunches, one arm hanging limply on his knee, all the fight left him. He looked forward, not at Hayato’s face, but just at the indistinct forest in the distance.
“I must leave now. The boat…” Hayato turned away.
“Old man… Raise a disciple to our level without killing, see if you can practice what you preach!” Jenazad called after Hayato as the latter took off in a straight line into the sunset. Jenazad’s sad laughter chased Hayato for long moments after.
Edited by citizen_lion, October 16 2016 - 04:08 PM.
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