It was the morning after Shogo’s night of blood, sweat, and triumph in the face of a steep challenge manufactured to result in his failure. Once again Shogo walked away victorious with his head held somewhat high, wincing in pain as he made his way down stone steps toward the Hozuki compound’s front door. His body battered and bruised from pushing it to the absolute limits to preserve his life if only a bit longer from his murderous teacher.
Shogo POV
“Ow…Ow…Owww-OH SHIT!” *CLAKKK-DNNKKK*
I struggled to my feet and immediately looked around to see if anyone saw me trip over my feet.
I did not bother brushing the dirt off my already ruined kimono and slowly meandered over to the familiar giant wooden gate. I leaned my back against the door to catch my breath.
‘How the fuck am I supposed to even get into the damn compound?! Doesn’t this shit lock for everybody that’s not a Hozuki!’
Suddenly I felt a wave of energy just leave my body abruptly and I stumbled away from the door I was leaning on.
*ERRRR-rrrr*
The colossal door slowly creaked open allowing Shogo to see the familiar sight of around twenty two-story wooden houses with five homes arranged in two rows on each side of a large stone path. The more expensive looking houses were further back in the compound and were along the stone path. The house that stood out the most was the giant three-story wooden behemoth that sat near the center of the compound. The black and gold swirl designs on the very roof of the house made it hard to ignore. A giant Hozuki clan symbol was displayed proudly above the front door of the house. It was all to obvious that head of the clan lived there, namely that pasty no eyebrow having freak. It was the much more modest house directly across from Gengetsu’s that I need to go to thankfully. I enter the gate and it shuts behind me as soon as I get two-three feet away from the threshold. I do not see anybody behind the door so I assume the Hozukis’ must have some special seal or something in place. I limped down the stone path while taking in the spectacle that was the Hozuki compound in daylight. Everything was so clean and polished, a complete contrast of the run down and dirty village below them on the shore. Even the air smelt fresher up here compared to the constant garbage smell that hung over the slums.
It must have been early in the morning because I did not see hide nor hair of any Hozuki in the surrounding area. The silence was unnerving; no birds were chirping, there was no wind, and even the ever-present sound of the ocean was muted. The Hozuki clan compound looks and feels like a true ghost town in every sense of the word.
I hurry over to the old woman’s front door and respectfully knock on the wooden frame. The door immediately slides open right after my knuckles wrap on the wood once. It took a lot of willpower for me not to jump out of my skin at the sudden appearance of the old lady at the door.
‘Was she waiting for me at the door or something?!’
Maybe it was because of my concussion before but I am just now noticing the old woman’s astounding height. My neck kinda hurt already from looking up at her pale somewhat wrinkled face. The woman’s gray hair was tied in an intricate knot held together by a single pin. The robes she wore were a dark blue with white accents. Her face resembles that blonde asshole’s a great deal, but granny’s face is rounder. It did not help that they both share the same beady brown eyes. Her stoic stare unnerves me more than I care to admit, when she turned her back to me and motioned me inside I felt instantly relieved.
“Shut the door behind you, child.”
I watch her walk out of my sight with some apprehension before I finally step inside the home making sure to close the sliding door behind me. I slowly walk through the house after the old woman while taking notice of all the ornate wall designs and colorful paintings that lined the hallway. I walk into the room I saw the lady disappear into to see her sitting at a table facing the door. The room is mostly empty save for a single square wooden table that was incredibly low to the ground with a steaming cup and a colorful flower in a white vase sitting on top. I look to my left and see the same small shrine to the moon goddess that I have seen in some of the homes I have robbed in the past. I roll my eyes; it seems that everybody from top to bottom in the Land of Water worships the moon to some extent. The whole Hozuki clan even puts the moon in all their first names.
“Are you hungry?”
This old lady’s question catches me off guard, I had not expected her to offer me any food. I focus my attention back to the elderly woman who awaited my answer with a single raised eyebrow.
“Uhhhh, yeah I could eat something.”
I reply unsure of her intentions still. The woman nodded her head at my answer, took a sip from her cup, and gracefully rises from her position at the table.
“Sit at the table child. I will be back with some food for you shortly. Do you drink tea?”
“Ummm sure?”
I have never been able to drink tea before; it had never really been available to me at the temple or over the last two years in Tako’s gang. I assumed the lady was drinking tea in her cup and it smelled rather good, so I decided to give it a try. The lady once again nods her head and steps out of the room. I sit down at the table and spread my legs out wide under it using my arms to help me prop my torso up. Just as I get comfortable the old woman walks back into the room and sits a steaming cup and a tray with fish, rice, and steamed vegetables in front of me. She calmly hands me a pair of chopsticks which I readily accept, and I start consuming the food. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was till the first bite of food I took. I absolutely inhale the food then I go to drink the tea-
“Ouch! That’s hot!”
I burned my tongue drinking the tea, but it tastes better than I thought it would.
“You should slow down boy. You will get sick if you eat too fast. There’s plenty more for you to eat if you’re not satisfied yet,”
I gladly took the woman up on her offer and asked for more food.
‘I better eat as much as I can who knows when I’ll be able to eat this well again!’
Thirty minutes later…
I pat my stomach as I am fuller than I’ve ever been in my life.
“Satisfied now?”
“You betcha lady. Thanks for the grub!”
“Oh. So, you do have some manners after all? What brings you back to my home child?”
“Uhhh are you “Lady Hana”?”
The woman raises an eyebrow at my question,
“Isn’t that a question you would ask before you come into a stranger’s house and eat their food?”
‘Damn! She’s got a good point! Am I at the wrong house?!’
Having seen the panic on my face the woman chuckles and answers my question,
“The answer to your question is yes, child. My name is Hanagetsuya Hozuki, otherwise known as “Lady Hana.” What can I do for you so early in the morning?”
“My name’s Shogo Isobe-,”
And my life’s story just comes pouring out of me. I don’t know what was making me feel so comfortable around this old woman at this point in time. It could have been the food, the tea, the solemn but warm look on her face, or the comforting atmosphere of the room we were in, but I just let almost everything loose. The woman takes in most of my story without a hint of emotion on her face except the parts about me having grown up in a temple and me surviving an encounter with Gengetsu, those got her to raise an eyebrow in obvious surprise. I omitted the parts about stealing from ninjas and encountering a giant eyeball underwater because I didn’t want to bring any unnecessary heat on myself, nor did I want to be dubbed a crazy person.
“Then that bastard Gengetsu demanded I come see you for healing. So, think you can help me out again…...ma’am?”
I add that last part to sound polite, it was something I learned at the temple. The lady sits with the same stoic look on her face looking deep into my eyes. I feel unsure that my request will be successful given her lack of reaction. The elderly woman suddenly closes her eyes and takes another sip of her now cooled tea then stands up from her seated position.
“Your story was a fascinating one indeed, young Shogo. But it was also unnecessary, for if you would have simply asked prior, I would have healed you again without your background information. While I do sympathize with your misfortune of being forcibly apprenticed under Lord Gengetsu, there isn’t much I can do for your situation other than offer you some medical assistance. Also, I suggest that you always refer to him as Gengetsu-sensei otherwise you might find yourself brutally punished by your teacher.”
She said the last part with some concern in her voice. I guess she knew that bastard had threatened me with death if I referred to him in public any other way.
Sigh~
“I get it, Lady Hana. I didn’t really expect you to solve all of my problems or anything, but I just needed to get all that shit off my chest. Ya’know.”
“I understand the need for an unbiased ear every now and then, Shogo. Now follow me, child. I will see to your wounds in the backroom you escaped from the previous night. This time I expect you to use the front door when you leave like a civilized human being.”
Lady Hana gives me a small grin at her light jab then she walked out of the room and down the hall,
“Technically! I was kidnapped!”
I follow Lady Hana toward the backroom.
Five hours later…
I slide back the front door and step out into the veiled sunlight of the Nakajima sun. I had about an hour before my scheduled meeting with that water balloon demon and I was fresh off a four-hour nap. Lady Hana strongly suggested that I head there early even though the field was relatively close.
I test my newly acquired sandals against the ground with a huge smile on my face. Wearing sandals is an odd feeling; I had never worn any type of shoes before after all! Lady Hana even wrapped my feet, hands, and shins with bandages to protect them from further damage. While she wrapped my hands, she told me that I was holding the sword I used wrong. Apparently, she could tell by the bruises on my hands while she examined and healed them. I put my right hand on top and left on bottom because I felt I could get more power out of the katana by using my dominant left hand to generate it at the bottom. Lady Hana told me that kenjutsu (what ninjas call sword fighting) wasn’t about putting the greatest amount of strength into the blade it was about making the most precise cut while keeping your balance. According to Hana, strength and speed were just a bye product of mastery of precision and excellent posture. She strongly recommended that I place my dominant hand closes to the sword’s guard to help increase my precision by gaining better control over the direction of the blade.
At first, I was reluctant to trust an old woman’s advice on ninja stuff but then she did something that dashed all the apprehension from my mind.
*Flashback*
“Soooo… you want me to believe that ninjas don’t really train speed and strength with swords, just precision and posture….”
“Yes. The genuinely great swordsmen train their posture and coordination with their blades to kill their enemies as efficiently as possible. Wasted movement in a battle of swords is a death sentence. Even a single nick of a blade guided with the utmost precision can result in a swift bloody victory or defeat.”
The old lady’s near black brown eyes darken a bit more at the end of her explanation,
“Riiggghtttt, because an old woman would know all about swor-,”
I feel a swift breeze that causes me to stop my sassiness then I see something float down from somewhere above me and land on to the table in front of me. It was midnight black and looked like cotton-
“MY HAIR!!!”
I scream as my hands go up to my scalp to feel a flat plane of hair instead of the bouncy mountain of curls that routinely sat my head. I grasp at the hair on the table and bring it to my chest. My eyes go to the only possible perpetrator of this heinous crime. Lady Hana’s smirk makes it impossible not to see the resemblance between her and that bastard, Gengetsu. She gently slides something back into the left sleeve of her robes,
“I’ll finish your much-needed haircut later, boy. I suggest you watch your tongue in the future, Shogo. You never know who you might be mouthing off too. It could cost you more than just some hair off your head. Now hurry up and collect yourself, I believe you have an important meeting to attend. Gen-boy will probably up the ante to get rid of you before his next mission.”
I nod dumbly while cradling the hair that I had left on my scalp.
“Wait…pfffftttt…. Gen-Boy?! HAHAHA!”
*Flashback Over*
I stretch my body a bit to get out the kinks from that awesome nap earlier. I wonder what that blonde bastard has planned for me now. Whatever it is, its gonna take a lot more than some tough workouts to off SHOGO ISOBE. I AM A WARRIOR!!!
??? POV
I look at the flexing buffoon that just exited Lady Hana and I cannot help but furiously gnaw at my bottom lip. The back of my neck grew tighter by the moment as I pieced together that this weird looking kid was Gengetsu-sama’s new apprentice. I cannot for the life of me understand why he would not choose me, the future of our clan (and his goddamn cousin), but instead accept some random street urchin as his apprentice.
I punch the wall in front of me in outrag-
“OW-ow-owowo,”
Okay…. I regret doing that, but I am gonna cut that fucking kid’s head off!
I rub my hand as watch Gengetsu-sama’s so called apprentice leave the compound with a determined look on his face.
Shogo POV
“Huff…Huff… Damn those were a lot of stairs!”
I run up the stairs on the side of the hill leading up to the lake I was at yesterday because I want to get to the clearing as early as possible. Old Lady Hana’s warning is making me more and more paranoid as the meeting time grows closer. I take a few deep breaths and continue walking up toward the clearing. The air is ridiculously clean up here, it feels like my deep breaths not only filled my lungs with oxygen but also freshened them up. As I get closer to the lake, the mist gets thicker and strangely warmer. I don’t remember the air near the lake being so humid earlier this morning, it’s not hot enough today in Nakajima for the air to heat up this much right now either. Alarm bells sound in my head as I walk further toward the clearing, the one I limped away from this morning, but I don’t get any closer.
It looks like I am walking in place as I could see the clearing further out in front of me, but my legs would not carry me any nearer. I stuff down the panic that rises in my chest and I slowly take cautious steps backwards. I retreat to the side of the road only for my noggin to make contact with a tree that appeared out of freaking nowhere. I look at toward the path leading to the stairs behind me, but it twists and coils like a snake, almost making me dizzy and somewhat upsetting my stomach. It is right then and there that I let the panic overtake me a bit. I sit down on my butt and shut my eyes tight.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON! Is this what tea does to people?! I vow never to drink that shit again! Am I dying or something?!”
I take a few more deep breaths to calm myself. I must get to that clearing on time or I am a goner. This is probably one of that balloon bastard’s tricks and I refuse to let him win. I stand up and walk with my arms sticking out in front of me. I step over to a nearby tree and lightly touch it, only for it to recede away like it was never there. I continue in that direction till I touch something solid even when it looked like nothing was there. I firmly grasped the object and I could tell it was a tree through the feeling of bark on my palms.
‘Okay so everything just looks like its in a different place then it actually is. I must have passed the lake a while ago. If I can touch the water in the lake, then I can find the clearing. I might as well walk around with my eyes closed.’
I feel around from tree to tree, almost falling off the edge of the hill a few times before I finally feel the cool sensation of water from my heel to my ankle. I immediately start working my way along the edge of the lake and eventually I come to what I assume is the clearing since I could not feel any more trees.
*DNNNKKKK! *
“OWWWW!”
I lift my foot off the ground and grasp it with both hands trying to alleviate the pain a little. My suspicions are confirmed as I stubbed my toe against what I assume was a piece of that DAMN rock. I take a moment to look at my surroundings and what I see shocks me to my very core. Half of my body stood on the ledge and the other half stood on the air like it was solid ground. I instinctively hop onto the cliff with a shriek.
*clap*…*clap*…*clap*
I frantically search my surroundings for the source of the clapping.
‘How the fuck does this bastard make even something like clapping seem so obnoxious?!’
Everything in my field of vision starts to shimmer and then it slowly recedes away to reveal a familiar rocky dirt clearing surrounded by trees next to a sizable crystal-clear lake. I stood the right in front of the half of boulder that collapsed. Besides the remains of the huge boulder, the only things I see in the clearing are dirt, trees, and water. Even more perplexing is that there was no mist. There was always SOME mist shrouding the air in Nakajima.
‘Where is that blonde frea-?’
Seemingly on cue the bastard shimmers into existence in the middle of the lake while standing on a fucking GIANT CLAM. Like where the fuck does somebody get a clam THAT big?! It was bigger than a goddamn two-story house!
“It seems you at least have some survival instincts trapped under that hard helmet you call a scalp huh, brat. Let us see if your half assed skills will help you survive this next module of training that I have planned for you. Prepare yourself!”
The air itself seemed to get thicker after that blowhard stopped expelling hot air all over the damn place and the mist starts to come back with a vengeance. It starts to get so thick that I cannot see my hands in front of my face.
“You’ve already proven to me that you can feebly navigate your surroundings like a blind old man when I take away your sight. Now I going to take away another one of your senses. Find the katana located somewhere on the other side of the lake. You have until sundown to grasp it by the hilt!”
Gengetsu’s infuriating voice echoed from all around me. I look around in vain to pinpoint the origin of his voice then suddenly an itching sensation tickled my nostrils,
“AAAAAHHHH-CHHHUUUUUU!!!”
I wipe my nose a bit and take a few sniffles. Almost immediately I find that I can no longer smell the trees and the lake water. I admit it did freak me out a bit, but I wasn’t about to let nobrows know about it.
“Your gonna have to do better than this if your trying to off me!”
I confidently take strides in the direction I assume the lake is based on the last time I saw it. I walk forward until I feel the familiar feeling of water on my right foot then I follow along the edge of the lake to the other side.
‘Why did he give me until sundown for something as easy as this? There must be some annoying ass twist or something to this stupid challenge he gave me! I cannot afford to lower my guard around this depraved bastard.’
It’s going to take a while for me to determine if I am on the other side of the lake given the fact that there were so few landmarks that could tell me exactly where I was relative to my starting point in the clearing. But it really didn’t help that the mist was smothering my entire field of vision. I couldn’t really take my time with this because I don’t know exactly where the hell, he put the sword. The katana is probably in some place that has been bobby trapped or some shit. I must be extremely cautious cause there is no telling what this bastard has in store for me after I get the stupid sword.
An hour later…
“This fucking sword is obviously not on the fucking ground anywhere!”
Two more hours later….
“OKAY now this jackass has me climbing trees! This is stupid!”
Three more hours later….
I heard a metallic ringing sound after I kicked some rubble in frustration. As soon as I heard it, I frantically kicked more pebbles in the direction of the clank sound.
*PNNN-NNGGGG*
More metallic ringing echoed in my ears and I run over in the direction I heard it from recklessly. As I get closer, I hear a faint whistling sound. I stop running immediately though when my left foot goes forward, and my toes meet nothing but air. I can hear the whistling sound a ton better and I can now tell its coming from somewhere below me.
“Really! Who the fuck stabs a sword into the side of a goddamn cliff?! AGGGGHHHHHHH!”
I hesitate for a moment and start to climb down the cliff using some of the rocks sticking out of the side of the mountain. This is the first lead to the sword that I’ve had in two hours! I can’t afford to punk out now; I don’t have much time left! It takes a while for me to scale down the cliff because finding dependable footholds was damn near impossible since my vision was so impaired by the mist. I couldn’t even look at how high in the air I was currently even if I wanted since the mist would block that off too. The whistling gets louder the further down the cliff I go meaning I am going in the right direction.
Suddenly, my foot impacts against something jutting out from the rocks. I traced it with my foot and felt immense relief at the feeling of cold steel on the top of my foot. I take my foot off the sword and try to formulate a plan,
‘Now how I am going to get take the damn thing out of the mountain? I’ll just climb down around the sword and yank it out from under it. I have to be super carefu- ‘
*CCCCccccrrkkkkk*
The sound of rocks cracking and the sudden feeling of weightlessness in my upper body made my heart drop. I desperately grasp at the rocks for a hold to halt my fall but all I manage to do was scrap up my hands. I slip off the cliff completely and just before I pass it, I manage to grasp on to the sword with both hands. My right on the hilt and my left on the blade. The blade cuts into to my hand quite a bit makes it bleed but the bandages that Lady Hana had wrapped it with earlier stopped the blade from cutting completely through my fingers to the bone. My heart hammers against my chest blocking out all other sound. I take a few breaths to try and calm myself, but it is not working right away. I wait a few moments ignoring the biting pain in my left hand before slowly finding my footing against the side of the hill once again. I take my hand off the blade slowly and quickly grasp a misshapen rock to my side. I yank on the hilt of the sword with as much strength as I could muster with one arm and I manage to loosen it after a couple of tries. I pull the katana out completely with one more hard yank, taking care not to drop the sword in the process.
‘Now how am I going to carry a katana and climb at the same time?’
The idea comes to me almost immediately and I place the blade of the katana in my mouth, making sure to flat out my tongue to avoid accidently cutting it. I slowly bite down on the blade as hard as I can, trying to make it as secure as possible. After shaking my head around a little to confirm that the sword was not gonna fall out, I start climbing up the hillside at an excruciatingly slow pace. I must feel around for my next hold above me and I take extra care to make sure it is secure before committing to it. My left hand still stung but I could not afford to focus on it. I DO NOT want a repeat of that short freefall I had trying to get the sword, especially now that I was so close to getting back to safety.
Tears of joy come to my eyes as I touch the top of the cliff with my right hand, I take the sword and throw it to the top so I can breath properly then I go about hoisting my myself up over the ledge. I roll on to my back and take deep breaths to calm my rapidly beating heart. I feel around my left side and find the sword laying on the ground. I grasp the hilt tightly in my hand and shakily stand up to my feet. I was officially done with this dumbass test,
“I got your stupid ass sword! Now what?!”
*Fffwwwhhpppp*
I felt two sharp pricks on the left side of my neck that startle the bravado right out of me. I feel two long metal needles sticking out of my neck and I immediately rip them out a throw them on the ground. A buzzing tingling sensation takes over my entire body. It was not painful by any means, but it was extremely annoying. The feeling was annoying enough to make it hard to focus on my own thoughts. I could only compare the new sensation to the feeling that comes with sitting down on my legs for too long. Suddenly as quickly as the sensation came it stopped completely.
I noticed immediately that the pain in my left hand had faded away completely but I didn’t feel anything else wrong with me. I tighten the bandages on my left hand to stop it from getting infected but as I’m doing so, I realize what that blonde demon really did to me,
‘I can’t feel ANYTHING!’
