Danso sprinted outside the restaurant and paused for a minute to remember where the men and the woman had gone. Once he found the correct alley, he ran towards it, having no second thoughts. Kevin and Sasha were stunned as Danso sprinted outside. They both had no time to think, and Kevin wanted to follow him, but they decided that he'd return by himself in due time anyway, so why get bothered, but they still were worried. Danso had no time to wear the Red Samurai suit as he did not want to waste any time and save the woman as quickly as possible. As Danso was running, he had a dilemma in his brain.
"I must not use the Sword Art of the Dragon, otherwise they might know that I am the Red Samurai, and the last thing I need right now is to get myself in more trouble. So I'll use my normal swordsman skills and as a last resort, I'll use my Sword Art's passive ability," concluded Danso.
Danso's Sword Art was special for two reasons. It was a good balance between offense and defense, as he had Dragon's Claw and other moves for offense, and he had Dragon's Wingshield for defense. Additionally, the second reason why his Sword Art was special is that it has a passive ability. Normally for Danso's Sword Art he has to say the executionary action words to unlock the ability, this is called action mode, but when using his passive ability all he needs to do is to supply soul energy from his soul to his hand and supply it to his sword and since it is a holy steel sword it can absorb the soul energy cause the blade to heat up and get engulfed in flames.
"All I have to do is say 'Sword Art of Fire' as a fake Sword Art and then use my passive ability to fool them so they don't realise I am the Red Samurai!" thought Danso.
The men were in sight and they were pushing the lady to the dead end to the further back of the alley. Danso ran towards them and knocked one down without raising any suspicion. The lady noticed Danso and Danso put a finger over his mouth, signalling the woman to be silent. However, the woman did not appear to be in distress and showed barely any emotions. Eventually, while trying to knock the second man down, the second man noticed and dodged Danso.
"Well, it is time to let's do this!" thought Danso.
The second man shot aluminum bullets out of his gun, and Danso blocked all the bullets with his sword with ease. Then the man decided to use his sorcery to try and escape.
"Paper sorcery:- Paper airplane" whispered the man.
"Sorry, man, I can't let you escape," said Danso as he caught him.
The man proceeded to shoot Danso in the stomach to and Danso fell straight to the floor.
"Fine, it is time for the last resort" thought Danso.
"Sword Art of Fire" said Danso
The holy steel blade started heating up, and steam and smoke started appearing from the blade. Danso spun the blade to create more momentum for the blade to catch on fire and combust. The man was startled and shot more bullets, but Danso blocked them with his spinning fire shield of sorts. Danso lunged towards the man and slashed him, creating a sizzling sound and a burnt mark as the man fell and fainted, but not dead.
"I can't believe that my fake sword art worked," sighed a relieved Danso. "It might prove useful normally and when I'm Red Samurai too!" pondered Danso.
After thinking eventually mustered enough courage to talk to the lady who was just sitting on an almost broken chair, waiting for the fighting to end. She has barely any expression, the same expressions in the beginning, but her face seemed gentle and kind. She was wearing a brown coat and a red full dress while carrying an umbrella using her right hand. She had brown hair of average length, a teddy bear necklace, while having a white snowflake earrings.
"Hi, you do understand you shouldn't be at these places late at night, right?" said Danso.
"I don't take advice from strangers and, more importantly, people who hurt other people when it can be avoided," replied the lady with a straight face.
"I saved you, show me a little bit of gratitude, and those men were carrying guns, if they escaped, they would bother you again, right? So it's best to teach them a lesson first so they'll never bother you again," said Danso.
"If they bother me again, I can deal with it," replied the lady.
"Oh my god," muttered an annoyed Danso. He then proceeded to storm off back to the restaurant, but then he heard a voice screaming.
"EMILY! EMILY! EMILY NOBIRA!" screamed the mysterious man.
"That must be my boss…" whispered Emily.
"Ugh, fine, I'll help you find your boss," said Danso.
"I never asked for help," replied Emily
"Helping is my second nature!" replied an annoyed Danso.
Suddenly, a middle-aged man who seemed fit and bulky ran into the alleyway. He looked at Danso in the eyes before unsheathing his sword and leaping towards Danso. The man's movements were fast, almost too fast, and the man managed to slice through Danso's sleeve.
"Do you know this man?" asked Danso to Emily.
Emily said nothing and just sat on the armchair and she fell asleep.
"Who are you?" asked the mysterious man.
"Why should I tell you?" replied Danso.
"Then you're an enemy," yelled the man before lunging at Danso with more fierce attacks.
Danso tried blocking more attacks, but they were too fast for him to see. It was like fighting Hiroshi in his training duels, but ten times harder. The man continued to relentlessly slash at Danso, while Danso tried to use his surroundings to his advantage.
"Dang it, I can't use my Samurai suit or my Sword Art action mode! What should I do? At this rate, I am going to lose this fight," pondered Danso.
Danso then caught his eyes on a trash bag that had many fleas and flies all over it. Danso used his sword to pick up the bag while running back and sliced it into pieces, and then proceeded to deflect the pieces straight to the man, like a baseball getting hit by a baseball bat. This stunned the man for a few seconds. This gave time for Danso to fire up his finishing move. Meanwhile, the man dodged all the trash bags and dodged backwards to charge up his finishing move.
"Sword Art of Fire:- Volcanic Strike" yelled Danso
The man uttered a sorcery executionary action sentence, and his sword started to burn a bright light blue.
"Could he also be a samurai?" thought Danso.
Both of them leaped at each other at the same time, but suddenly a green portal appeared, sending Danso and the mysterious man back into their original places. The aftermath of the portal absorbing all of their strikes made Emily wake up from her sleep.
"Kevin?! What are you doing here?" exclaimed Danso.
"Sasha and I were worried it's been a long time since you sprinted out of the restaurant so she told me to go check in on you," explained Kevin.
"She couldn't come and check in on me with you?" replied Danso
"She's busy," said Kevin.
"There's no one in the restaurant at this time," replied Danso.
"I don't know, ask her!" yelled Kevin.
"Chiro, where were you all this time?" Emily questioned the mysterious man.
"Well, you see I got lost and I bought some souvenirs from the capital city, though!" replied an excited Chiro. "Now tell me who this man is, is he any harm to you?" questioned Chiro with a serious look on his face.
"Well, he did help me beat those thugs, actually, he beat the thugs by himself, so I wouldn't say he's harmful, just annoying," replied an exhausted and sleepy Emily.
"How am I annoying?" screamed an annoyed Danso. then, Danso took a minute to realise who he was talking to and who the other person was.
After realizing that Danso's eyes widened as he realized the man he had just fought was probably Chiro Zanami, the leader of the DMMS, and the man who rejected the Sword God. Danso then realized that Emily must also be part of the DMMS since she was with Chiro.
"But I have to give credit to you, young samurai! You fought well!" praised Chiro.
"By any chance are you Chiro Zanami?" asked Danso.
"I guess I am popular then!" laughed Chiro.
"Why did you reject the Sword God for magic? The Zanami clan is in the mud because of you," blamed Danso.
"I have my reasons, you'll know if you are at the right place at the right time!" explained Chiro.
"Alright, wait!" interrupted Kevin. "Why did you fight Danso if he was saving Emily?"
"Well, uhm I thought Danso was one of the thugs," said Chiro embarrassed. "I apologize!"
"Well, Chiro, just you wait! I'll join the DMMS and I'll learn all the reasons why you did a horrible deed, and I'll put you on trial in front of all the samurai!" declared Danso
Emily was about to get up and slap Danso, but Chiro stopped her.
"I'll wait, alright? You know what? You have a promising future ahead of you! Pass this samurai from the first stage of the DMMS trial," ordered Chiro to Emily.
Emily proceeded to jot down a section in her notebook called 'Passed 1st stage'.
"What's your name?" asked Emily.
"Danso Narahara," responded Danso.
"Well, I could guess!" responded Chiro.
After writing Danso's name down, Chiro and Emily proceeded to leave the alleyway before Chiro stopped.
"Come tomorrow at 10 am for your 2nd trial, alright?" said Chiro.
"Ok," responded Danso before taking Kevin, and the different groups went their separate ways and set out on their separate destinations.