After sparring 5 more times, the old man had told Yukio and Sora to only seek him out when they had perfected all of the forms.
As for the duo… they were holding each other up as they left the dojo. Both of them were drenched in sweat, hair matted, bruised and dirty.
They had just fought Takeo 5 times in a row without breaks, having to totally and completely memorise all of the forms of the Kagamihana style.
"That was hell…" Sora said, his voice hoarse and his face bruised badly.
Yukio chuckled and then coughed. "Yes… it was." He said, his voice equally as hoarse.
Sora broke free from Yukio's grasp and stretched, every bone in his body popping and his muscles screaming at him.
Yukio groaned as he nearly lost his balance and fell over without Sora's assistance.
"Do you even remember what any of the forms were?" Sora asked, his voice still really hoarse and honestly it hurt to speak.
Yukio felt the same way, "Yes… I'm going to try and write all of them down in the morning. I really need to sleep now." He said, starting to limp toward his house a few houses down.
Sora sighed and his eyes flickered golden for a moment as he raised his hand, focusing the golden energy around Yukio to compress and become solid before using that energy to pick the pale boy up and move him to his house.
Yukio immediately screamed, his throat scratching and making him flinch. He had just been carried like 50 meters out of nowhere.
He looked back at Sora who was trembling and giving him a thumbs up. Yukio realised what had happened and smiled and gave him a thumbs up back.
Struggling to push the door open, Yukio groaned as he walked into his house. The lights were off, no one was home. His parents must've been out on a date or something.
He didn't pay too much attention to it and just walked up the stairs into his room, not even having enough strength to close his door.
Groaning one more time as he fell onto his bedroom floor and immediately fell asleep.
…
…
*Yaaaaawn!* Yukio yawned as he woke up, his body still aching real bad but he noticed that he was on his bed now. His parents must've come home and seen him sprawled across the floor, then placed him on his bed.
He sat up, his soft white hair with faded pink undertones extremely messy and his face was puffy from oversleeping. His rose coloured eyes fluttered open and closed repeatedly as he cleared his vision.
He rolled out of bed and trembled when he stood up, body still a mess from that brutal sparring exercise. Then, he walked over to his desk, where a notebook was already open with a pencil next to it.
Yukio stretched one more time, his body finally loosening up enough for him to get to work.
He yawned once more before he put pencil to paper.
— Sensei's sword style —
After facing the Kagamihana swordsmanship technique multiple times and taking note of each of the movements, I've come up with a slight idea of how each of them work and what they do.
Since there are ten pages of this style, I am going to assume each of them are to be performed in order to create something relative to a dance. Though, any of the moves can be used by themselves without using the previous move.
The first move, or "page" as sensei called it is…
1. Flower Reflection
- It's the opening movement, it appears to be a calm, off center stance and step that presents a fake line of attack that somehow hides the distance of the user and their intentions.
2. Still Water Mirror
- This is more focused on reading and copying. It uses subtle footwork and blade alignment that mirrors the opponent's rhythm without committing, quietly stealing their battle momentum.
3. Mist Draw
- This is the first actual attack. The blade is drawn and released during a body turn, so the strike appears only after it has already passed. I'm pretty sure that the body turn hides the blade being drawn at all, it's a very sneaky attack but it was certainly awesome to witness.
4. Butterfly's Edge
- This technique was quite ridiculous to face actually. Sensei just passed by Sora and attacked him without big bro even noticing! It seems to work by gliding past the opponent's flank, attacking with a very light, yet extremely precise cut without breaking motion. I am excited to learn this one.
Yukio took his pencil off the paper and shook his wrist while tapping on the tapper before getting back to work.
5. Shadow Invitation
- Sora fell for this trap in every single one of our spars. It's a deliberate temptation. A brief pause that gives the opponent the perfect yet seamless opening, luring an attack that collapses over a sudden counter or repositioning.
6. Shattered Reflection
- This technique was the one that confused both me and big bro the most. He somehow broke the rhythm of the battle. It was a sudden burst of speed that completely shattered the established rhythm, all of his habits and movements before were all flukes made to make us use them to our advantage. Sensei then struck from an angle that we thought was safe.
7. Voice of the Flower
- Big bro was somehow able to use this technique without any prior experience. I figured it was something like a silent intent. A movement so incredibly restrained that it barely counts as an attack, relying on perfect timing and elusiveness instead of force or speed, which is very surprising for Sora to have used this.
8. Falling Petals
- It feels like I've used this before, it's an explosion of sudden cuts that descend, each attack lighter than the last, meant to overwhelm the opponents perception instead of their defense.
9. Empty Bloom
- This is another move that relies on restraint. Basically very similar to the Shadow Invitation, but instead of a false opening, it's a false counter opening. Sensei made it seem like he was about to lose, he then vanished and countered my counter.
10. Mirror's End
- This is the final technique and final dance. It is an extremely clean, decisive motion that ends the exchange instantly, so subtle that anyone watching doesn't even register that the opponent had been killed.
Yukio tapped the pencil on the paper before adding a few more notes.
- Each movement seems to flow naturally into the next. Skipping steps is fine. Looking at all of the movements, it seems to be extremely difficult to perform all of them in succession but very powerful.
— End of page —
Yukio dropped the pencil as he finished writing about the ten movements of the Kagamihana sword style.
He sighed in relief and suddenly smiled in excitement, he and Sora were about to learn even more awesome techniques so they could become even stronger and eventually leave the village.
Yukio figured that Sora wanted to leave, he wanted to go with him but he was far too afraid to ask about it, so he just focused on getting stronger so that he wouldn't be a burden to Sora.
*BANG!*
Yukio sighed, used to the sudden entrance of his room.
"MY SON! YOU ARE AWAKE!" A loud, gruff voice came from behind him.
Yukio turned to see his brute of a father, Yuu Sunohara, standing there. "Good morning, father!" He said with a smile.
Yuu then grinned widely and brought his hands out from behind his back, he was holding four strange items in his hands. "A present for my hard working son!" He said enthusiastically.
Yukio squinted in confusion, not too sure what the objects were supposed to be. "Thank you, but what is it?" He asked.
"Weights! You put them on your wrists and ankles to train your body while doing everyday tasks! Once you take them off, you'll feel as if you can fly." His father said with a wink.
Yukio's eyes immediately sparkled with excitement as he stood up, wincing in pain briefly before reaching out to the weights.
Once he grabbed one, his eyes shot open wide as he nearly fell down. These were absurdly heavy, even with chakra augmenting his strength. "H-how much do these weigh?!" Yukio said, struggling to hold it.
"Hmm, each one is about 80 Kilograms." Yuu said with a grin, Yukio staring in disbelief at how his father was casually holding four of these without breaking a sweat.
Yukio grit his teeth before he smiled determinedly and put the weights on, briefly unable to move.
His father grinned and burst out into laughter as he patted Yukio's back so hard he nearly fell over. "That's my boy! Keep getting stronger and you'll end up like me!" He said, extremely proud of his son.
Yukio shuffled around the room, both of his arms dangling at his sides as he tried to adjust to the added weight.
…
…
Takeo hummed in thought as he walked toward Shuen's temple, his sword resting on his hip and his stride was calm. "Let's see what she's been up to without me." He muttered, a tone of suspicion in his voice.
"What who's up to?" An elderly voice came from his side. Takeo looked over to see The Voice of The Lord or as he knew him… Takumi. His childhood friend of sorts.
Takeo raised an eyebrow. "Why are you hiding your chakra for, old man? I didn't sense you at all." He asked, ignoring Takumi's question.
The other old man laughed then smiled softly at Takeo. "I've been feeling really wary recently, The Lord has also been on edge. You never know what to expect."
"Right… okay, well. I've got a job to do." Takeo said, just continuing with his day.
However, Takumi stepped in his way with a smile. "How about we go and get something to eat? It's been a while, old friend." He said, almost like he was rushing.
Takeo raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Hm. Well, I'm sure Tsubaki wants me to come and help her with her work, I better not keep her waiting." He said as he tried to brush past.
However, Takumi would not budge. "Right. Okay, I'll go get some food with you… stupid old man." He suddenly said, rolling his eyes.
The Voice of The Lord suddenly burst out laughing, making Takeo giggle a bit too. "You should've seen the look on your face!" Takumi said.
Takeo hit the back of the other man's head and sighed. "So, where are we going?" He asked, still a little annoyed.
"Just come with me." Takumi nodded and started walking away from the temple.
Takeo took one glance back at the temple before following The Voice of The Lord.
"Y'know sneaky little swordsman… you're the human I've had contact with the longest, yet you have never given into any of my offers… I can seriously give you immense power, perhaps I can even bring your little brother back."
Takeo didn't even flinch or do anything differently as a sinister voice ripped through his head, he was very used to this by now. Ever since he had done that… 62 years ago, the voice of someone who claimed to be a god had constantly been inside his head.
It would always try and convince him to do various biddings, small things like steal or kill people, often to leave the village. However, more recently… this voice has been more and more active with its desires. It had been telling him to do things like betray Shuen, bring outside forces to the village to cause havoc, steal Shuen's abilities, kill innocents etc.
Takeo never listened to it though, Shuen had saved him after that day. He would never betray him.