"ACK!-"
Only the earth didn't shake. The sky didn't light up. There was no brilliant heat other than Stripes flapping skin rags that hung off him.
He coughed up blood onto the front end of my blade as it protruded from his chest. Even so he continued to grow. His human skin continued to tear and fall off, revealing a brown furred beast marred with black stripes.
He reached down and touched the Goblin corpse. The movement caused me to twist my blade and drive it deeper.
"HAHAA!!" He threw his head back and laughed as I tore his heart.
"You've done your reading. Tricking my nose. Playing on my bloodlust. You sacrificed a friend just to get to me. You carried bait across a city on a Full Moon for….. ERHM… me. And still, you hesitate—" Stripes' moved in a blur. His hand fastened around my face. His palms were as rough as sandpaper, digging deep and cutting my cheeks and lips as he pulled me overhead and slammed me into the Goblin carcass.
The wind exploded from my chest upon impact. Goblin blood splattered into my eyes, mixing with WereTiger saliva and burning like hellfire.
"What do I ALWAYS say about hesitation!? Ghost you were my best student. You knew this the best. I'm disssaaARRGH—"
He lifted me again— slamming me again. A white hot stabbing pain opened in my sides.
My ribs.
He was so strong I couldn't comprehend it.
He lifted me again and threw me overhead, soaring back into the house behind him.
I crashed through a weapons rack, and then through a window, landing on the other side in wet grass with the stars watching me.
They faded in and out of focus. Blinking like the eyes of a god.
The beast inside the blacksmith shop roared. It's footfalls were so soundless I had to sense Stripes' approach by the sheer growth of body heat.
Warmer…. Warmer …. Hot.
He was unrecognizable as he stood over me.
He stood on raised heels. It was unnatural. His muscles had doubled in size along with his height that now had to be over six and a half feet. Sabered fangs jutted from his thick snout, dripping endlessly with frothy white saliva. His eyes were like the stars. Powerful. Bright. Casting judgement.
I watched in silence as he pulled the sword out of his chest. The wound steamed, healing rapidly before closing and covering in fur.
My rage was immense.
Why was power such an uphill battle?
I went through years of abuse— chaos at the hands of Demons, chaos at the hands of warring clans who couldn't care less about collateral damage, all to reach the Dojo. A place I could train. To grow strong enough to alter the status quo. To rule it. Only to find my very teacher was no different…. From everything.
The world was infinitely colder than I once assumed.
On that night it was a glacier in a storm.
But it wasn't my brand of storm….
Or was it?
The stars disappeared like the gods shutting their eyes as my story came to a close. They lost interest. Damn them.
Then, a new brightness coalesced across the black horizon.
Arcs and veins of blue brilliance. Rumbling and sparking like a warrior spirit roused into action. Into a second wind….
Rain fell.
I reached for the churning clouds. Like the blades I could feel the energy within. I could see from the sky. I could feel the pulse in everything. In myself.
I wasn't dying.
I was being Reborn.
Stripes went in for the kill.
Lightning struck.
DING!
[Congratulations, […???]. I am your System. You have been Successfully Reborn. Due to your natural talent with bladed weapons and devastating precision, you have been given the class of High Swordsman. Along with your Class awakening you have also gained the Starter Skills, (Sever Lv2), and (Sharpening Lv2). Along with these skills you also have your System Innate Abilities, (Aura Manipulation) and (Lightning Manipulation). Further information about your Class and Skills can be accessed at a later time. Strike hard and true as you always do, [..???]. But don't forget, even the sharpest blades will break under the right circumstances…]
I'll never forget that message.
I'll never forget the feeling of lightning coursing through my veins.
The blast punched a crater into the earth and sent Stripes flying back towards his home.
It left me in the center of it. My clothes had been burned off my body. I stood naked. Bleeding. Tiny arcs of power danced on my skin like fireflies around a campfire. The rain had grown so intense I stood in a deep puddle.
In the splattering waters I saw my reflection.
My black hair had been intermingled with arcs of white lightning. Flowing freely. My eyes were like the stars. Only they didn't belong to any god. They belonged to me. My face was purple and bruised all over but I never felt stronger.
A pebble fell.
I looked up and found Stripes standing at the edge of the crater. Half of his body was already ash. Nothing but brittle black bone remained on his left side.
"H….hows that for speed…. Boy?" The beast growled.
"Not good enough, Sensei." I raised my freehand, envisioning a bolt of lightning exploding from my fingertips.
All that came to fruition was a headache and a nosebleed.
I stumbled.
Fair enough. I didn't need magic.
I reached for the blade in my left hand. I must've grabbed it when I crashed through the weapons rack. The sheath was a material I didn't understand.
The handle was laced in deep red leather lockets. The grooves felt amazing—
"Don't…. Boy."
I looked up and found Stripes staring wide eyed at me. The sight of my rebirth was nothing compared to the carrying of the blade.
Suddenly I remembered Yuki's tall tale about Stripes being related to Aiko.
What was her full name?
Aiko Muramasa.
Pieces clicked together in my brain as fast as the lightning fell at my command.
Stripes lived in a Clan blacksmith shop. Last heir to the Cursed Clan. A Cursed Clan housing a Cursed Blade.
The Cursed Blade.
Ding!
[You have acquired a Hallowed Weapon! System Recognition…45….70…99% Item Recognized. (Muramasa Blade of Madness) Acquired! Willpower stat of 40+ Recommended for safe usage.]
The Muramasa Blade of Madness…
"Don't forsake your honor, boy. You kill me as a man. Honor…. Your family. Empower your clan. You can do it now. Or I will."
"No."
Stripes growled, "YOU…. You'll ruin everRRRything!" He stumbled. His burnt skeletal half jingled along with his movements.
"Well…. I don't have a Clan. I don't have parents— I'm an Orphan. A Ronin…. Soon to be. I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain."
Stripes pounced.
I unsheathed Muramasa.
It spoke to me in a language I've known fluently since birth.
Unholy violence.
********
The Moon was an article of the past. At least for the next coming weeks.
The early morning sun climbed for the fading clouds. Yellow rays reflected off the morning dew on the grass. Yellow rays highlighted the blood and guts strewn across the cliff side in so much bulk you could only see grass in scarce patches. Soaked in blood.
I don't remember anything that happened that night.
You would've thought I was the Shape-Shifter.
I stood alone.
Naked. Covered in dried blood that cracked and split on my skin with each ragged breath. My bones ached in a way that made me nauseous. But I was so hungry I couldn't puke.
So I stood. For the moment, paralyzed by conflicting extremities of survival.
The Muramasa Blade cooed thankfully in my grasp. A new handful of souls to feed on.
I scanned my surroundings.
The blacksmith shop was rubble. The backend of the cliff side was shaved off. A clean cut. Dead Sea creatures laid on land below covered in burnt puncture wounds like they'd been carpet bombed by lightning.
Slaughtered Samurai and Onmyoji lay in pieces. Scorched embers of their flesh and armor fluttered in the early morning winds.
I held Stripes head in my hand. A great feline beast with half its ashen skull exposed. His slitted eye was rolled so far back all I saw was the white.
An overwhelming feeling of satisfaction washed over me.
There was silence.
Power.
I was ready. I wasn't an Orphan anymore. I had my limitless power.
But I'd committed enough crimes to be considered the second coming of Aiko. I needed to lay low. I needed to leave or I'd be slaughtered as retribution by other samurai clans.
In a rush I approached the rubble of the blacksmith shop and dug until I found clothing. Nothing more than one of Sensei's traveler cloaks and oversized pants. It took me less than five minutes to find everything and get dressed. The sun was beginning to make me sweat. It mixed with the blood that stuck to me— the smell forced memories I didn't know I had into my brains forefront.
Blood hurricanes. Slashing flurries that eviscerated fleeing samurai. Floating in the clouds. My fingers brushing against bolts of lightn—
"Erhm…. Erhm!"
I spun around in response to the sound.
At the end of the walkway leading up the hill, six beings in black stood before me.
Some wore Kabuki masks and had blades at their hip. Others wore thick robes and foreigner armor with oddly misshapen weapons vaguely reminiscent of ones I knew. But unmistakably legendary.
One of the men wielded a trident and a purely red spear. Another held a flaming sword and a hammer with impossibly deep engravings. They were strong.
But even more so, they were cursed. That was the only way I could describe it at the time. A deep sense of discomfort and terror held me as they stared.
My hand hovered over my blade. My fingers stung as if to remind me, standing was a battle I was losing already.
"Do you want to be killed?….. Or do you want to keep getting stronger?" The leading man in foreigner robes and expensive silver armor asked.
Blunt. Straight to the point.
"We can take you from these Samurai— from these lands, teach you how to take down more people like…. What did he call him?"
"Stripes." A woman beside him in a Kabuki mask replied.
"We can teach you to kill more like Stripes. Creatures even stronger. We came for that sword…."
I readied myself for war.
"…But you wield it well despite your age. You have potential. Come with us, keep the blade, get stronger. Or we kill you."
"Please resist gehehehehhe…." One of them whispered behind a human flesh mask.
I didn't need to be a genius to make an intelligent decision here. As they spoke I tried for simple sparks of lightning in my hands and felt the recoil of zero Mana. I flexed the muscles in my toes and legs to check my explosiveness and felt broken bones.
"Damn."
I straightened as I stood tall. I was tall for kids my age— but the foreigners could've been titans for all I was concerned.
"You couldn't kill me so easily. But I have nothing more here. I'll follow for now." I replied. My native tongue created a language barrier for some of them, but for the man in thick robes and the woman wearing the Kabuki mask I was funny.
I've never wanted to be funny.
They shared a laugh, "You'll fit right in. Let's move before we blow up this island."
Suddenly we were all flying on winds controlled by the leading man.
"How about a heads up next time, Sayaad? We're in killshot of a trigger happy child with the Muramasa Blade." One of the shadowy figures complained as he flipped and rolled inside a wind bubble.
Wherever else their conversation went, I didn't know.
I was too lost in flying over the ocean. Past the cluster of Dead Sea creatures washed up on land, low level entry beasts and the shallowest depth level.
The world was so blue.
I had no idea where we were going. And then I saw it.
A ship. It had a flag on it I'd never seen. A massive white skull— cracked and broken, surrounded by all manner of weapons and run through by a lightning bolt. It almost looked like a clock. Or a wheel.
When we landed on the upper deck I pretended like I wasn't already sick.
I faced their leader— Sayaad, "Where are we goi—"
My facade wouldn't have lasted long anyway. I at least hoped to gather more information. I was out before even finishing the sentence. Succumbing to my injuries and exhaustion.
But before I went out completely I heard one thing.
"The Creed of the Godless has no room for babies! Let me eat hi—"
"He killed a Noble Clan by himself. To think a ten year old boy collapsed the Kumataiyan Heirarchy in one night with a single sword. That's no baby. And you can try to kill him now but look…. He's still holding Muramasa."
"He'll be strong."
"But will he deny the bastards above us?"
"Yes. Gods and Arrogant warriors of our caliber simply don't mix. Trust me, he'll fit."