One warm afternoon, there's a crowd of people surrounding a brawl. A boy, roughly eighteen, is fighting a grown man with bulging muscles that's over eight feet tall. The boy hits the bleeding man's face one last time, and he's out cold. The crowd cheers in amazement as the man's body hits the ground with a thud and the boy raises his bloodied fist in the air, claiming his victory. A man dressed like a sheriff walks to the center as people move out of his way when they see him coming.

"Starting fights again, Minazuki?", the sheriff asks as he glares at the boy.

"Coming to finally arrest me? I guess that's the downside of growing up.", the boy says with a grin on his face.

The sheriff starts to reach for his handcuffs before men from the crowd say, "Come on Sheriff, the guy was askin' for it."

"Yeah, that guy was a real ass!", a woman shouts out from the crowd. The crowd gets louder and louder with their attempts to keep the Sheriff from arresting the boy.

"Pipe it down! I'm not arrestin' him!", the Sheriff shouts forcefully. He pulls an envelope from his back pocket with 'Minazuki' written across the front in a fancy font. "Old Man Yata told me to bring this to ya. Now, I understand it's your birthday 'n all, but don't be causin' so much trouble. It's bad enough I got all these Imperial Soldiers to deal with.", the Sheriff says as he hands the boy his letter.

Minazuki starts to open the envelope as the Sheriff disperses the crowd. The letter seems to be written on fairly old paper and it reads, "Minazuki, come to the Dragon Shrine and obtain your fortune."

"I guess the stories were true. Hopefully the other story is true.", he thinks to himself as he folds up the letter and puts it in his pocket. He grabs his shirt off the ground and starts heading up the winding stairs along the mountain side leading to the Dragon Shrine. As he puts his shirt on, he reaches the gates to the shrine where an old man is waiting patiently, looking off to the horizon. "I got your letter, are the stories really true?", Minazuki asks the old man.

"I had... a vision...", the old man says as he turns to the boy.

"A vision?", Minazuki asks as he gives the elder a confused glance.

"Come, there's much to tell.", the old man says before starting to walk inside the shrine.

Minazuki follows him as he asked and says, "What kind of vision did you have Old Man? Was it me becoming king? Oh, maybe me becoming a professional boxer and winning the Imperial Championship? Or maybe, do I grow a mustache?"

The old man stops in the middle of the room and says, "No, I'm afraid it wasn't anything of the sort."

"Then what was it? It must've been pretty important for you to sick the Sheriff on me.", Minazuki asks as he walks up to the old man.

"There's a terrible storm coming, one that will cause this little village of ours to be engulfed by a river, but no ordinary river.", the old man says vaguely.

"A storm? There's going to be a flood!? We have to warn the others! I bet if we get started now we'll-", Minazuki begins to say but gets cut off as the old man gives him a cold, worried look.

The old man looks away from the boy before explaining, "It's not that kind of flood, child."

Minazuki turns to him with a concerned look and asks, "Then what kind of storm are you talking about?"

The old man turns to him, a much more serious glare on the old man's face as he says, "One that will rain blood down upon all of us, lining the road with bodies of men, women and children alike. And with the blood will come a freezing wind. Thus it is foretold in my vision."

"Rain blood? And a freezing wind? You must really be out of it then, Old Man.", Minazuki says, doubting the old man's fortunes.

"All of my fortunes have come true, and so will this one. There is no avoiding it, but that wasn't all that I saw.", the Old Man says as he continues deeper into the shrine. Minazuki follows him into the sacred room with a giant dragon skull.

"Long ago, the elder of this once great village captured a dragon and tamed it to be his servant. He was a great man, and my great great grandfather.", the Old Man says with a slight smile. "And with that dragon, he entrusted his greatest secret.", the old man continues before pressing a hidden button, disguised as a brick in the wall. The dragon skull opens, revealing a hidden path through the mouth. The old man walks through the skull and says, "Follow, and receive your destiny."

"My destiny?", Minazuki asks as he follows the old man. He follows the Old Man through what seems like a deep and winding tunnel. When the Old Man stops, they see an open dragon's claw holding what look like gauntlets made of dragon scales and leather with a gem in the right gauntlet.

"This is his long forgotten secret. Boy, have you heard of weapons called, Imperial Arms?", the Old Man says as he walks over to the gauntlets.

"Yeah, they're supposed to be super strong weapons made from even stronger Danger Beasts by one of the former Emperors, right?", Minazuki replies, earning a quick nod from the elder.

"Correct, and you're looking at one right before your very eyes. This is Split The Earth In Two; Quake, the legendary gauntlets forged from the scales and hide of The Ancient Earth Dragon with its heart as the core. These gauntlets were used by a mythical man who went by Shoryu, who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. His gauntlets have been hidden away here for generations. This Imperial Arm was considered to be one of the most dangerous Imperial Arms created.", Yata explains as he picks up the gauntlets. He turns and hands the gauntlets over to Minazuki, "With these gauntlets, you'll avenge our small village and bring an end to all of this." Minazuki just looks down at the gauntlets and then back to the Old Man with a confused look before the Old Man says, "Go on, put them on." "He'll see, my fortunes are never wrong.", the old man thinks as Minazuki goes to put on the gauntlets. He slides them on his hands and they resize to fit his hands perfectly.

"T-this is amazing! These things are for real!", Minazuki shouts in amazement before growing silent. "Y-your fortune... It told you that these things would work for me? You saw this coming?", Minazuki asks slightly nervous, earning another nod from Yata.

"Yes.", Yata bluntly replies, causing the boy to close his eyes and rub his temples.

"How long?", Minazuki asks as he looks over to the old man.

"The trees in my vision, they were starting to bloom with life. Based on that, I'd guess we have about...one month.", the Old Man replies as he starts to walk out of the tunnel.

"A-A month!? How am I-", Minazuki begins to ask before the old man shouts, "Enough! You'll figure out a way. You must..."

"You should also keep this conversation just between the two of us. If the villagers were told, they'd go into a panic.", Yata adds as he walks past Minazuki as he's left dazed by what he's just been told.

They're heading out of the tunnel and as they reach the shrine they hear a loud explosion come from outside. "Boy, go check on the others! This can't be good.", Yata orders as he points to the door, which the boy follows as he rushes to the door.

Minazuki rushes outside to see smoke coming from the village below. He rushes down to see what happened and sees a group of soldiers surrounding the Sheriff and the Blacksmith. "Looks like we're in a real bind this time, huh?", the Blacksmith says surprisingly calm. "You don't say? There's at least twenty more of these guys here, and I'm outta bullets.", the Sheriff whispers, not lowering his gun for even a moment. The soldiers are quickly cut down in a flash and as their bodies hit the ground, they see a man dressed in an all white kimono sheathing his sword.

"This must be pretty serious for you to get off your lazy butt, Chief Izunaga.", Minazuki notes as he walks over to them.

Izunaga looks over to the Village entrance and sees a few soldiers retreating. "They're retreating, we need to formulate a plan. Ikashi, Toda, are you both unharmed?", Izunaga says before turning to the Sheriff and the Blacksmith.

"We're fine, but it looks like we might be bitin off more than we can chew...", the Sheriff says with a worried look as he holsters his pistol.

"No way, we need to do this! If we don't stand up for ourselves, what will our ancestors say in the afterlife!? You need to look at the bigger picture, Ikashi!", the Blacksmith says as he puts down his giant hammer.

"What was that all about exactly?", Minazuki asks as he walks over to the chief.

"Those were soldiers sent to collect overdue taxes for the Imperial City.", Izunaga explains, checking each corpse to be sure they're all dead.

"We didn't anticipate them arrivin' so soon. Toda didn't even have enough time to finish makin' the mines we were gonna plant to ambush them.", Ikashi adds as he looks over to the blacksmith.

"I ended up usin' what I had as grenades. It was awesome, you shoulda seen it kid!", Toda says as he wraps one arm around Minazuki and points to the craters in the ground.

"So, what did the Old Ma-", Ikashi begins to ask before Izunaga notices the gauntlets and says, "Well by God, they accepted you."

"What are you talking about Izunaga?", Toda asks with a confused look.

"This boy is wielding an Imperial Arm.", Izunaga says as he points to the gauntlets.

"An Imperial Arm? But, where did he get it?", Ikashi asks with a suspicious look.

"Does it matter!? We just found our ace in the hole! Those Imperial bastards won't know what's coming!", Toda says enthusiastically, a large grin forming on the burly man's hairy face.

"Don't get too antsy, he hasn't learned how to use it yet.", they hear Yata say from above them. They look up to see the old man looking down at them from the edge of the shrine. "Izunaga, you'll be this boy's mentor. Teach him all you know, he'll need it.", the old man orders before heading back into the shrine.

"Yes sir, right away.", Izunaga replies with a bow. He then turns to Minazuki and says, "Meet me in the training yard north of the village in half an hour. We're starting your training immediately."

As Izunaga walks off, a girl with long green hair braided down the length of her back walks up to Minazuki. She's roughly Minazuki's age and wearing brown leather armor and pants with matching gauntlets. "Minazuki! Are you ready for your birthday spar with me? I can really feel myself improving.", the girl says as she looks up to him.

"Actually, I'll have to pass on this one, Phi. The Old Man wants me to train with Izunaga for a while. He gave me this Imperial Arm and everything.", Minazuki replies as he shows her the gauntlets.

"Oh, you're training with him now? I guess you're really moving up in the world then. And you got an Imperial Arm too? Aren't there like, less than fifty of those things in existence?", she says as she's fascinated by the gauntlets and the shiny gem in the right one.

"Yeah, you should ask him if you can join in. We can get stronger like we always wanted to.", Minazuki suggests as he starts heading to the training yard.

She nods her head and replies with, "I'll ask the Village Elder if I should. He's never wrong.", before heading up to the shrine, waving back to him as she rushes up the stairs.

When Minazuki finally reaches the training yard, he sees Izunaga meditating with his sword in his lap. "You're here, good. Now your training can begin.", Izunaga says as he gets up and grabs his sheathed sword with his left hand. "Think fast.", Izunaga says before hitting a lever with the sheathed sword, triggering a plethora of traps. Minazuki manages to dodge over a leg sweeping log trap as Izunaga says, "This is your first trial, evasion." "Dodge these as long as you can. This will help increase your reaction time and ability to dodge the enemy's attacks.", Izunaga explains as Minazuki continues to dodge the many traps. Minazuki continues to dodge traps for ten whole minutes before three traps happen to ensnare him, knocking him across the ground and into a nearby tree. "You did pretty good for a novice fighter. Let's move on to another exercise.", Izunaga says as he pulls the lever, stopping the traps.

"Not even giving me a break in between these things? Damn...", Minazuki says as he lifts himself off the ground.

"There isn't time for rest. Yata told me about his vision. We need to make sure you're prepared to do what necessary to protect this village.", Izunaga says as he picks up a wooden sword. "I want you to use those gauntlets of yours to block my attacks. This might just be a wooden sword, but anything can become a deadly weapon if wielded by a master.", Izunaga says before taking his draw stance.

"Alright, an actual fight! Let's do this!", Minazuki says, excited to be in another fight. Izunaga's attacks are as quick as they are accurate, but Minazuki is still able to react fast enough to block them all. As he continues to force the chief back, Minazuki starts to feel something in his feet, like a slight tingling feeling.

"Don't forget, always expect the unexpected!", Izunaga shouts before hitting the ground, sending dirt into Minazuki's eye's. "If what Yata says is true, this shouldn't be a problem for him.", Izunaga thinks as he pulls his weapon back to strike him down. With his eyes full of dirt, Minazuki couldn't see anything, yet he could still feel where Izunaga and his wooden blade are. As the wooden blade is about to hit Minazuki straight on the top of his head, Minazuki catches it with his gauntlet before punching Izunaga in the stomach. Izunaga drops to his knees before gasping for air from the powerful punch. "So this is the power of an Imperial Arm!?", Izunaga says as he tries to regain his composure.

"What the hell was that!? I could see you, but my eyes were closed the whole time!", Minazuki shouts as he wipes the dirt from his eyes with his shirt.

"That was one of the abilities passed down through your Imperial Arm. It's like a sixth sense that allows you to see objects through vibrations they send through the ground.", Izunaga explains as he gets to his feet. "It seems like your Imperial Arm is helping you adapt to it easier and quickly figure out its abilities.", Izunaga says as he looks at the gauntlets. He then turns his gaze to a large rock on the edge of the training grounds and says, "You see that rock, see if you can make it move, but without touching it."

"Without touching it? How?", Minazuki asks with a baffled expression on his face.

"Terrakinesis. Those gauntlets are made from scales from the Ancient Earth Dragon of legend and that gem inside is made from its heart. This allows the user to manipulate the earth around them like it once did.", Izunaga explains as the boy looks down at the gauntlets, seeing the mysterious aura radiating off of them. Minazuki begins to focus on the rock and it begins to vibrate violently. "Good, now try to move it.", Izunaga says sternly. Minazuki lifts his hand and the rock goes up with it.

Minazuki's amazed by his new ability and starts to freely move the rock around without any effort while saying, "This is amazing! So this is the power of an Imperial Arm!"

"Indeed, Imperial Arms are impressive weapons, but they do take a lot of mental energy to properly use so maybe you shouldn't be going too overboard with that.", Izunaga says as he walks over to Minazuki and puts his hand on his shoulder.

Minazuki drops the rock and says, "What? I feel fine. What else can I do with this thing?"

"Let's just focus on these two abilities for now. That way you don't branch out too quickly.", Izunaga suggests, trying to get the boy to focus. Minazuki does as he says and simply focuses on these two new abilities for now. He trains for the rest of the day and into the night, trying to push his Terrakinesis and sensing wildlife in the nearby forest with a blindfold on. Once they finish their training, Izunaga gives him a duffel bag to keep supplies in, like food, water, equipment, etc.

When he gets home, he finds his father and younger brother waiting for him. "I'm home, you guys miss me?", Minazuki asks with his duffel bag over his shoulder.

"Big Brother!", the little brother shouts as he runs over to him with a smile. He hugs Minazuki's leg while saying, "We heard the good news from the Village Elder! You're training even harder than you usually do, right?"

Minazuki ruffles his hair while saying, "You bet little bro. Working with Izunaga is way harder than anything I've been doing so far."

"So, Izunaga is training you, huh? He used to be a pretty good bounty hunter back in our day. He's gonna give you hell if you don't give it one hundred and ten percent you know.", his father says before taking a sip from his cup.

"Yeah, I know. That's why I'm aiming to go beyond one hundred percent of my ability. I'll do my best to one day get on his level and protect everyone!", Minazuki says as he clenches his fist and a fire seems to ignite in his eyes.

"I want to train too! I want to help Big Brother protect our village! Everyone else too!", his little brother shouts gleefully.

"That's my boy. Now, if you really want to protect everyone, you'll need to get some rest. Izunaga was probably going easy on you today, so you better be prepared to be pushed to your breaking point tomorrow, Minazuki.", his father says as he gets up from his chair and pats Minazuki on his shoulder. Minazuki nods and heads to his room as his brother and father follow suit.