TW/ there will be adult language, mentions of death and violence if you do not wish to read about that I advise you do not read from further on in this book
[6 years Ago]
I'm now currently resting after finally escaping sensei's boring lecture about how a swordsman shouldn't be reckless. "Ugh, how boring can that old bat be?" I mutter to myself, one day, I'll be the head of the dojo and everyone will listen to me. Everyone knows it, so why couldn't I act however I want? It's not like anyone can stop me, because after all, I alone am the honored one. Sensei himself said it, I mean I am the strongest especially with my blessing. I will not be told how to act by someone weaker than I, not even sensei, that stupid old geezer! He's so annoying, why can't he leave me be? He's constantly getting weaker! It's all because of that weak body. I'll kick his ass the next time he tries to stop me from doing what I want. Why can't he just stay in his place? He isn't my father, I have no father. Suddenly a foot finds itself in my stomach, sending me through the tree I was resting against. I open my eyes to see it is sensei who kicked me,
"Oi, brat, don't go slacking off! I thought I told you to get back to your training?"
Oh boy, here we go with him talking down on me. "Shut it old geezer I'll do whatever I damn well please! I refuse to listen to a bag of dusty old bones like you." That seems to have pissed him off, telling from how he's currently glaring and walking towards me.
Without warning, he starts throwing punches towards me. I'm barely able to block them— and when I counter kicked, he threw his own kick. I refused to be humiliated by him, so I palm striked his chest, sending him several meters back. That didn't put him down, however, before I could blink he's already back in front of me trying to hammer me into the ground in an attack of speeds I'm barely able to dodge. In retaliation for this disrespect, I reach up grabbing his face and slam him into the ground.
"Had enough, old man~?" I guess teasing him wasn't a smart idea because he gets back up and starts releasing an intimidating aura.
"You listen here young man. I'm about to put you in your place. No more taking it easy on you!" Wait, taking it easy on me? Does that mean I've never brought him to a stalemate like I've been led to believe? Before I could even react, he knocked me onto my ass. Enraged, I got up and aimed a punch right for his nose, but right as I'm about to hit him he disappeared— was it just an afterimage?
"Oh no." I mumbled, and as soon as I turned around, everything goes black.
Opening my eyes, the first thing I noticed was a tight pressure over my face. Deciding it was uncomfortable, I reached for my face and as my hand reaches it I noticed that the tight pressure is bandages. How awfully annoying that is…
"Wait, does this mean I lost to that old bastard?!"I groaned to myself, "How could this be possible? l'm the strong,everyone knows that… does that mean he's always held back against me? No that can't be right I'd never lose to a sack of dust I'm the honored one he said so himself! He dared lie to me. How could I be so foolish to think he trusted me? Does he think I'm so weak that I can't handle losing to someone stronger than I? If that's the case he better watch himself because starting from this day forward I will train and I refuse to stop even if it kills me. I will surpass ." It felt like a small flame igniting in me as I mumbled it all out, until,l, I felt a small hard object slam into the temple of my head. Turning to the direction it came from shows me who it was and it was my sensei, I quickly jumped up and yelled at him "WHAT WAS THAT FOR YOU OLD BASTARD?!" He just chuckles at me before responding
"Well you looked distracted whispering about getting stronger, if that's the case that's why I'm here to train you and the others of the dojo so get up and let's go Akira." I widened my eyes a little. He's usually never this kind. Is there a reason he's suddenly being so nice towards me? Glaring towards him I stomp over and grab the collar of his haori and get in his face.
"Why the hell are you acting so nice all of the sudden eh?" He chuckles and swats my hand away before standing up and walking away, but before he does,he turns around and waves his hand motioning for me to follow. With a sigh I reluctantly follow along.
A year later
I'm currently training with the other children at the dojo. They've certainly grown and so have I, They now stand even less of a chance and I stand a bit of a chance against the old man now. I definitely could beat him but that's only if I go all out but I might still die. Recently the old man has been teaching me to fight with other things besides my fist or a sword like for instance a spear or a longbow. Both of which I excel at. I'm even better with them than I am with a katana or kunai. The old man says I should stick to using them but I wish to carry on his legacy as a great swordsman. I refuse to mainly use a spear or longbow I have been using my Honor (Honor: the abilities given to those blessed by the gods) More recently, I still have a long way to go before I can use it well In fights, but I'm getting there, slowly but surely.
Though some weird things have been happening recently, like I've been getting an eerie feeling that I'm being watched, and it's been starting to piss me off. So I've been walking around the dojo at night to make sure everything's okay and no one gets hurt. Though I'm still glad I've been training under sensei more especially since he's helped me with my attitude problem and I've been getting closer with the others here, and I'm like the big brother of sorts to them, and I'm glad cause they've helped rid me of the constant loneliness that I felt. I feel a tug on my pants, looking down, I see one of the younger students grinning at me. His name is Touya Hikara, sighing, I ask him what he needs, he just giggles at me.
"Well aniki I wanna play with you! Hehe, can we play with the ball? I bet I can win this time!" Oh boy, he sure is excited but it was so annoying, why does he always need me to play with him? Before going outside to play with him, I take a look around and no one was there,
"That's weird, I could've sworn sensei was planning to do a class around this time today?" My lips shape into a fine line, I could only guess that he decided not to, so, I do just that I take the little brat outside.
We've been playing for a while now, and I didn't want to continue playing as the eerie feeling was getting worse and worse the more we played.
Before I could even do anything, sensei comes running out of the dojo criticallywounded, he looked feral, like a wild animal.
I could barely recognize him, and the way his body was acting was almost like it was struggling against itself, but his eyes and face were lifeless, and cold. I immediately run to check up on him, but as soon as I get near him he kicks me away and runs towards Touya and readying his blade to strike him down, and he does just that, as he strikes Touya down, who was now back on his feet, also lifeless.
Only now realizing the severity of the situation, my only option was to fight sensei and possibly Touya if he decides to attack as well. The walls of the dojo were blown open, and I see all of the other students there with a strange man whose whole body is covered in this glow that reminded me of the color of mud. Putting my fist up, I set my whole body ablaze with my flames ready to fight them all even if it pains me to do so. I dash towards sensei as he's the biggest threat here as I'll deal with the strange man afterwards. Sensei readies his blade, and with my hands ablaze, I punch right through the blade as my flames melted through it as soon as it got near the blade. Though the blade melted, sensei was still strong, he kicked me away, sending me flying through the air; but not for long as I found my footing.
This will be easy if I rely on my flames to fight, though they aren't exactly ready, they're still extremely hot, and hurt a lot. I run towards sensei, sending out waves of fire to which he dodges, but as soon as he does, I noticed that the children are behind him. I tried to control my flames mid air and stop them but sensei catches up to me and kicks the back of my knee and slams my head onto the ground before kicking my side and sending me rolling on the ground.
I get up slowly, as I look up, I see the children, all dead, sliced in half, and burning.
All.Because.Of.Me.
I couldn't stop the sob from escaping my lips as tears fell from my face. I look towards sensei, and the man only to see the man laughing and grinning about it all. I glared at him as my flames started to act out and get hotter to the point the ground beneath me began to melt, and the air gets dry while trees are set ablaze, illuminating the dark sky even more. I run towards them, burning everything in my path including the dead bodies of my fellow students. Forming a flame in the shape of a blade I cut sensei down, but in doing so I give the man enough time to coat some of the trees around us in his aura and make them come towards me and when making contact they not only turn to ash which obscures my vision but they give the man enough time to escape.
"That…That bastard!" I fall to the ground as even more tears pooled out from my eyes as everything, including the dojo was burning down. I lost everything…this can't be- everything began to fade away as it burns to ash.
The next thing I know, I'm opening my eyes, but for some reason I couldn't see out of my left eye.
"…Oh that's right, Nanaka died, and I lost." My voice sounded gravelly and empty. Why am I still standing? Ddn't I also die when he stabbed me through my chest? And my wounds, they're still fresh, which means I wasn't out for too long. Looking at my wounds, I set my left index and middle finger ablaze as I put them to my wounds o cauterize them. Looking forward, I know what I must do. I shall retrieve Nanaka's body and return it to her family. They must know the fate of their beloved daughter of which they have forsaken. And that man, he shall die for I will not let him get away with killing Nanaka. He will fall, especially after stopping me from learning of who took Nanaka's child, and when everything is over and done with, I shall retrieve the child.
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