After the incident regarding Tanya suddenly levitating above the table in the restaurant that served fried chicken, many people in the district stared at the two, all of them were recording on their phones, hoping that the same phenomenon would happen again, but it didn’t.

“Damnit, can’t these people just mind their own business?!”

Tanya expressed in complete irritation, the people kept on giving them looks, and flashing their phones at them. The two were already annoyed with the amount of people in the district that were recording them, and simply wanted some sense of privacy.

“This may not be a good idea, but might as well try it out!”

Dex said to Tanya as he grabbed her and dashed swiftly along the sidewalk, the amount of people there were quite plentiful, and it proved to be difficult to traverse through the ocean of humans and other creatures alike on the overcrowded sidewalks.

The people were amazed by this display of speed that they never thought was even possible, it was like he had some sort of power that everyone in the district failed to understand, or it was something undiscovered that was left for them to explore.

“I don’t know about this, but it seems fun!”

Tanya replied, suddenly feeling excitement over Dex’s swift movement wherein he dashed towards the people in the district in just the blink of an eye. His movement was so swift and precise in fact, that the people from the district didn’t even notice them dashing towards the neon-lit sidewalks, the only thing they saw was a shadow of what seemed to be a human, but it vanished instantly from their sight.

After a few minutes, Dex and Tanya were in yet another district of the city, where no one knew of their existence in the area. They were quite exhausted from the dash, deeply sighing while laying down on the ground.

The district was slightly different from the previous one, most notably the absence of anyone who knew of their presence in the restaurant. Secondly, their fashion styles were quite different, many humans and other species of creatures wore highly colorful clothing as opposed to the previous district who wore a white, metallic style of clothing, which was seen as the new norm to the people living there.

“Th-That was really damn tiring… Maybe next time, try not to make a scene in some crowded place where you know people would record and post that shit into SpaceTube.” 

Said Dex, who was lying down on the floor, gasping for air, he seemed to have spent all of his stamina on swiftly dashing at a ridiculous speed, with none of the citizens ever seeming to realize that the two were dashing along their way, and only felt a slight disturbance in their general direction caused by the slight shockwave that Dex’s fast dashes made.

Tanya was standing up, deeply sighing from what had just happened recently. She stared at the extravagant neon lights that the district offered, the billboards that advertised a multitude of fashion clothing brands and beauty products, and the large skyscraper that stood tall before any building.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry about that… I just got too carried away by that chicken.”

Tanya apologized once again to Dex, and lay down on the ground in complete exhaustion shortly after. Suddenly, her vision started to blur, and she could hardly see anything in sight. The colorful display of neon lights attractively placed on the buildings shined brighter than ever before, and she was constantly blacking out.

“I-I don’t feel so good…” said Tanya, about to collapse from utter exhaustion caused by her short adrenaline rush from Dex’s swift dashing earlier.

“Hey! Are you okay?!”

Dex shaked Tanya profusely, seeing if she was still conscious or not, it seemed that she went unconscious due to motion sickness caused by his immeasurably fast dash, and her skin was slowly starting to turn pale white.

“I have to do something, but what the hell do I even do in a situation like this?!”

Dex panicked, doing every he could to save Tanya who was lying down on the ground unconscious. They were at a dark alleyway where no other people walking normally on the sidewalks would see them, and he started by checking if she was still alive and breathing.

He put his ear near her mouth, and heard a slight breath that indicated that she was still alive, but she was unconscious. In a situation like this, a normal person would call an ambulance to save the person, but it was different for Dex. He was an infamous outlaw, and going to a hospital with many Intergalactics scouting the area would mean a death sentence.

For short, there was nothing that he could do to save her except to hope for the best, praying that she might suddenly wake up and they could continue on with their journey in the city.

However, Dex realized something, or more specifically, someone that was staring at them from the way up, he was already aware of this before when they were exiting the restaurant, but he only managed to confront him now.

“I know you’re there… If you’re an enemy, then I don’t have time to fight a weakling like you.”

Dex said to the masked swordsman, who was standing above the rooftops of the building that Dex was lying down on. The walls were covered in graffiti that was created by the local troublemakers in the area, and multiple garbage bins were seen in the dark, narrow alleyway.

“I’m not an enemy… To be fair, I am really curious about how you managed to learn Essence, or at least have some form of knowledge over it.”

The masked swordsman came down, and approached Dex with no intent to harm him. Dex noticed this, and quickly stood up to defend his unconscious partner Tanya, who was left defenseless. He held his dagger, planning to kill the masked swordsman if he ever planned to harm Tanya.

“No need to worry, I don’t have any plans of harming you and your partner over there… I just wanted to know how you even got Essence in the first place, it’s unnatural that someone like you would have access to it, and also that girl over there.”

The masked swordsman curiously asked whether or not Dex knew this power that he called “Essence”. This was the power that both Dex and Tanya had, and they weren’t even aware of it in the first place.

“Essence? What the hell even is that? I’m just built differently from the others, that’s why I’m strong.”

Dex replied to the masked swordsman, who was eagerly waiting for an answer. It was quite underwhelming, and didn’t actually answer any of the questions that he asked, but it was enough for him to be quite curious about Dex and the others.

“Very well then.”

The masked swordsman took his mask off, and revealed the face of a young man, who seemed to be in his early 20’s, wearing a light robe with aspects of modernity and holographic prints, he also had messy black hair, and an elegant sword that he used for fighting opponents.

“My name is Renzo Kenshin, grandson of Tarou… I’m an outlaw that specializes in mastering Essence… I’ve recognized your potential to become one of the strongest essence users in the entire galaxy, and it made me want to join your crew as a team of outlaws…”

The masked swordsman, who revealed himself to have the name Renzo Kenshin, kneeled down to Dex, he unexpectedly acquired a new crew member in the process, which was the last thing that he would’ve thought of in a situation like this.

“Y-You want to join my crew? I mean, if you really want to, then I would allow it.”

Dex wanted to make sure that this masked swordsman was really devoted to join his crew, the masked swordsman knelt down to him, which was a sign of loyalty and devotion to a leader in their culture.

“Exactly… You have untapped potential that you still haven’t realized yet… But by mastering Essence, you are able to reach unparalleled amounts of strength that could overcome anything in your path.”

Renzo said as he knelt down to Dex, with both of his hands placed on the floor as a sign of peace, not intending to harm Tanya just like Dex thought.

“Fine… I guess I’ll make you my second-in-command, you seem kinda strong, so you definitely deserve it.”

Dex made Renzo, his newly acquired crew member, his second-in-command, something that he wasn’t expecting in the first place. He thought that since he wasn’t trusted, he would be the last thing that the crew needed, but he seemed to be a priority in the crew.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve under you…” said Renzo who remained kneeling down on the ground.

“Y’know, maybe you should stop kneeling down whenever you say something, is your culture really like that?”

Dex questioned him, since he was slowly getting irritated by his politeness, saying that it’s not something an outlaw would do, and to him, it was a sign of weakness and cowardice.