AKITO
Whatever herbs he had with him, Akito mixed them and applied on his hands. It didn't stop the malignant Qi from being active but this is all he could do for now. He spent the entire night writhing in pain which was pulsating throughout his arm. He exhausted whatever books he brought with him to find a recipe for the cure but to no avail.
He knew that his master might know the cure but he had to attend the competition and there was no way he can go meet him and get into the competition at the same time.
Aki woke up sweating from his entire body. His hand was in agony and the places where the whip had tied itself around had bloomed into deep red lines and it looked swollen and angry. He laid on the bed panting as his Qi fought with the foreign Qi inside him.
He wanted to hit himself to be so stupid to catch an Imperial weapon in his hand. He could have done anything else, like maybe deflected it with his sword but no his impulsive mind decided to catch it, maybe he did deserve this agony for his carelessness.
There was a small knock in the room he was occupying. Somehow pulling himself up from the bed, he dragged himself towards the door. He had no idea how he was going to participate today. Thinking how he will have to forfeit almost brought tears into his eyes. He was going to let his teacher down because of a moment of his carelessness.
Opening the door, he found that there was no one standing there just two small packages were on the floor. He walked back to his bed taking the packages with him.
One of the envelopes contained the time for his first stage of the competition. He had been allocated to third hour after midday. Akito had no idea whether he will be able to attend the task.
The other package was very peculiar there was a small box and the small card on it which read use it well.
If that wasn't clear enough, when he opened the small container, he could feel the strong Qi radiating from the box. He immediately recognised the healing paste but what he couldn't comprehend was that who was the sender.
Scooping up a little bit of the paste he applied it on one single line on his finger and to his immense relief the Qi gave a very cool and soothing effect. Immediately he covered all the red lines containing the malignant Qi with the healing paste.
Aki laid back feeling the foreign Qi now getting suppressed from the joint efforts of his Qi and the paste's. The relief was god given that he drifted off asleep. The next time when he woke up, he could feel the foreign Qi has been totally splurged from his body.
Observing his palm, he was quite shocked, whoever had sent him that paste must be a senior with higher level of cultivation. Who could it be, a friend of his master or some well-wisher. Akito wished he could trace the Qi but he has not reached that level in his cultivation to achieve that. Nevertheless, he will remember this Qi signature and thank the person when he finds them.
At exact three hours after midday, he reached the arena where the competitors were assembled. Roughly seeing the size of the crowd, he could already guess around 500 cultivators were present. Taking a deep breath and calming his nerves he registered his name and was taken to a waiting room.
He read through the information brochure for this stage. This stage was to be held in a closed arena with representatives from different sects who came to recruit and the judges present, there won't be any audience. They will be divided into teams of ten and presented in front of them.
The task itself was easily achievable. They will be given a single petal of Magnolia flower; they were especially known for testing elemental controls. The cultivators have to match the flow of the natural Qi present in the flower with their own.
Magnolia flowers are the only known flowers who still retain their flow of Qi for few hours after being plucked from the tree. Contestants have to produce any element that they prefer, and control it on the petal until the invigilator says so without damaging the petal.
Aki had the best control in Fire. His control over fire has always been appreciated by his sensei. But fire control can be achieved by anyone and he didn't want to be one in the commons here. This was the stage to stand out and prove it to Kijuro Tokugawa-san that he was worthy to be his student.
"You look like, you are thinking up a complicated alchemic solution."
Akito heard a sweet voice; he had already sensed a very strong presence near him but he was curious why the cultivator spoke to him. He turned towards the woman without any outward reaction only just a slight twitch of his eyes.
He did not react just continued to stare at the woman in front of him who looked like she has been sculpted by the gods. She was beautiful with rosy cheeks, red luscious lips, looking all soft and cuddly but it was the eyes that gave her away. Her eyes were sharp trained on him like hunter on prey and that put Aki on alert. His inner Qi rushing through him ready for an attack.
When he failed to respond to her, she spoke again.
"You are kind of cute, aren't you?"
Asami observed the boy who had been the topic of discussion for the past two days. The rapidly spreading red hue on his cheeks and his flagger bested expression brought a small giggle out of her. The embarrassed look on him made him look far younger and adorable.
The boy's reactions were so cute that she wanted to tease him more. He looked almost traumatised which made Asami hide behind her fan again giggling.
"I am Asami Shimura only daughter of Eisuke Shimura, head of Shimura clan and I have decided I'm going to keep you." She spoke with playful eyes.
Aki had faced many difficult situations when he was travelling with his master. Magical beasts, wayward cultivators, looters hell even kidnappers but in the name of kami-sama(god), he did not know how to handle this cultivator/stranger woman who is telling him she wants to keep him.
"Whaaa….what did you say?"
This was probably the first time that Aki was so flustered that he stuttered. Horrified with the speed in which he was losing control he was almost ready to bolt. But before he could do anything or Asami could respond to him a cultivator announced asking them to come to the evaluation room.
Aki was left sitting there reeling, the woman's words blanking him out for a second when he heard the soft voice again.
"Come on bunny-chan, let's go." Asami stood up and walked away towards the queue forming.
By the time Aki decided to join the line he was the last one. Did that woman just call him bunny. He did not look like a stupid bunny at all. Annoyed and embarrassed he tried to calm himself down.
This was not important he needed to perform really well for his exams. Deep breaths in, deep breaths out. No need to panic, he can do this. Giving himself a good pep talk he brought forth his game face and was ready to take up the challenge.
to be continued ------------