Loki’s Successor System

251  Parade

Jin and his apprentice had been spending a lot of quality together. Oh and ... a few clones were in the picture as well. They were fast approaching the tournament—they had over a day alone to etch skills and prowess behind Stevan's youthful head.

Stevan was against twenty-three clones. But the number was well at one hundred a few hours ago. This validated the fact that Stevan was making clear progress. Eliminating these clones, however, required arduous effort through and through. Their eliminations did not come easy, but the scars and battered clothes Stevan now found himself wearing did. All the clones lunged toward Stevan. He quickly leaped into the air and jumped over them all. Before he could land, a clone appeared in front of him. The clone punched. He landed, blocking the punch. Stevan furrowed his brows. "Wait! I wanna talk to Jin." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The clone halted, lowering its hands to its sides. "Huh? But I'm right here ...." "No," Stevan said, "the real Jin. I want to talk to him."

"A small fraction of original Jin's consciousness resides within us," another clone said from behind, "so what we hear, he hears."

Stevan narrowed his eyes. "I don't care about all that. I just want to talk to ... the real Jin. We'll have to postpone our training for a bit, okay?" The clones all stepped aside as Stevan made his way through the large group of nearly identical figures. He was going straight toward Jin.

Jin was under the shade of a large tree upon which he slumped. The tree branches were plentiful and the leaves were clustered closely together, making Jin the optimal place to avoid the merciless reign of the hot sun above. "Jin," Stevan said as he halted before Jin. Though, even saying his name was of no significance: Jin obviously knew he was approaching.

Jin sighed. "What is it now?"

"Fighting these clones over and over again is boring," Stevan said. "And watching you fight them is even more boring," Jin said, "so stop being selfish and resume your training."

Stevan sulked. "Your clones aren't skillful at all. They're not even using any of your skills on me."

"Don't blame them," Jin narrowed his eyes.

Mentoring was more stressful than he remembered. "You're the one at fault. They're simply holding back on you. And despite of this fact, they're killing you every so often."

"That's another problem right there," Stevan said, "what if they kill me again and this time Kaylie refuses to rewind me back to life?"

Jin averted his eyes. "I have that covered. You have at least a thousand more chances of being revived."

"How so sure?"

"Sexy Jin has proven to be more effective than I've anticipated," Jin smirked. Cliff appeared, leaning against the tree. "You better just make sure Sexy Jin doesn't get the girl pregnant."

"He's one horny bastard," Jin said, "but that's not possible."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Kaylie is incapable of giving birth to anything." Jin looked out at the sky. "That's why her system is superior to mine. Her body is constantly reset to a former, optimal, and healthy condition where little to no negatives affected her body. This includes age. She doesn't age at all because of this daily reset."

"What does that have to do with pregnancy?" Cliff raised a brow.

"Plenty," Jin said. "Every time a baby starts to develop, it is erased since her body reverts daily to a state where she wasn't pregnant."

Cliff scoffed and vanished.

Stevan folded his arms. Jin was a horrible mentor: something he knew better than anyone else. The tournament was too close. He had not any time on his hands to simply waste. He had to defeat all the clones and keep defeating them in order to improve. The clones hadn't shown him their full potential yet--they refrained from even using skills--so this warranted that they would be able to progressively increase their difficulty as he got stronger.

Stevan balled his fists, turned around, and stormed off toward the group of clones again. Slowly, a corner of Jin's lips quirked up as he sat, leaning on the tree in the field.

***

Stevan laid upon the chair in the living room. Sprawled out. He was breathing at all, and his eyes were rolled up in his head, revealing white; no pupils. Sitting beside Stevan's listeless body was Kaylie.

Kaylie wore an apathetic look on her face as she looked up at Jin who stood in the living room, arms folded, smirk on his face.

Kaylie scoffed as she rolled her eyes, then passed them back to Stevan. "How many times am I gonna have to do this? How did he even die this time?" She put out a hand.

"I ordered my clones to attack him with all their physical strength," Jin said, "had no idea they would fold him this bad."

Kaylie shook her head and scoffed. Then, she outstretched her fingers, and curled them slightly inward as if she was grabbing a door handle. She then pivoted her hand to left. Suddenly, Stevan's wounds started to clones in real time. His blood became fresh and thick again, and returned to his bloodstream. His battered clothes magically regained a less rugged condition. His cuts and wounds closed themselves. Kaylie was looking at a clean Stevan.

Suddenly, he gasped in effort of in taking air, and bolted upright on his behind. He looked around—right and then. Finally, his eyes met Jin and he narrowed his eyes. He remembered exactly what happened right then.

"Thanks for the one hundredth time," Stevan said.

"You're not welcomed again," Kaylie answered.

Jin smirked.

Sexy Jin suddenly withdrew from a room in the hall and made his way toward the living room. He stopped right next to Jin with a grin on his face.

This clone's face was unlike any other. There were an arrogance to it, yes. But there was more: a seductive gaze and a note of hostility, or rather energy to be used in bed. Only Jin knew what he'd created. And he did regret it. A regret that he could do nothing about as long as it remained nescessary.

What's more, Stevan had no idea what the clone wore. It was almost radically naked. Some grass covered the pubic area, and its behind. And it wore a suit. Except, this was not really a suit for there was hardly any cloth one could discern. The only cloth present was the black bow stuck to Sexy Jin's chest. Stevan averted his eyes. "I'll try not to return, Kaylie but I can't promise that."

Kaylie scoffed. "You keep disturbing us. The next time you return, I'll leave you dead." She looked over at Jin. "And Jin, would you please take it easy on the kid? Soon, I won't be able to revive him. My power is being pushed to its limits."

Jin hadn't responded to that. So, Kaylie found herself looking away.

Kai entered the room with a cup of coffee. Everyone—except Jin—watched as he sauntered over to the living room and took a seat on the red couch. Kai looked different. There were conspicuous dark circles around his eyes, and his skin was awfully paled. Stevan took one good look at him and knew exactly what to do. He grinned as he glimpsed at Jin, and then walked over to Kai. "Hey, Kai," Stevan said. "How have you been?"

"Horrible," Kai said, frowning as he held the cup of coffee in his hands. He wished he could have said what bothered him, but he figured relenting was best. Besides, Stevan was only a child. "How so?" Stevan cluctched his hands behind his back.

"It's nothing," Stevan said. But in truth, it was too much. He couldn't sleep ever since this 'Sexy Jin' moved into his sister's room. Just recalling the unfortunate experiences riled him to the extent of fuming like the cup of hot coffee he held.

"Uhm," Stevan scratched his head. He averted his eyes. "I guess if it's really nothing ... and you're not busy ... maybe you could," he looked up at Kai, "help me out in the fields. Y'know, like, teach me a few things." He glimpsed back at Jin. However, Jin wasn't there.

"No," Kai said.

Stevan grimaced. "Sorry, I didn't get that. What did you s—"

"I said," Kai snapped, "no."

"No what?"

"I can't train you," Kai took a sip from

his cup of coffee.

"Why not?" Stevan frowned . "I have my own apprentice to teach today even in my state of being a bit under the weather," Kai said. "Maybe it's best your mentor teach you. I know he's probably a pain in the arse, but you should know that Jin won't just have you lose the apprentice tournament. Not when he needs you to qualify for the Apprentice and Hunter Duos. I'd say you're in the right selfish hands, kid."

Stevan sulked. "Ohh, man. Come on! Trust me, Kai, Jin is no good. He hasn't even thought me anything. And he hasn't even touch me. He leaves it up to all of his clones ..." "You're actually in the right hands, kid. Believe me when I say that."