Takemura Itsuki

A lantern gave out its orange streaks of light as fire crackled up. The light softly touched the wooden ceiling on top of it on which it was hanging. SWISH! CLASH! The room was filled with the sounds of metal pieces speedily clashing with each other. “ARCH!” A boyish voice shouted. SLASH! CLASH! BHAK! The feet landed on the wooden ground. “HUFF. HUFF,” The man panted as he exhaled out breath from his mouth. The knees were bent forward, the hands in front of the knee held a thick sword with a black colored handle, the back was bent forward, and the face of mine was panting heavily completely filled with sweat. “You’re good,” I commented as I frowned toward the one in front of me with a smile.

“The raw kazi is just like the second level of kazi. Since you’ve learned to use the weaponry kazi, raw kazi shouldn’t be a far idea. It’s just a complementary skill which can be skipped, though, but if used correctly, raw kazi can be far more dangerous than the real kazi.”

I straightened my knees, moved the sword upon my shoulder, ran two steps forward as my feet tapped on the wooden ground, and swung it at the guy in a violet loose t-shirt in front of me. As the slender guy looked at the sword coming from right up to left down, he bent his back to the right and stepped a little back, evading my attack just at some centimeters. I then quickly moved my sword to my left waist and horizontally swung it from left to right. CLASH! The heavy sword clashed with some invisible metal again as it passed through a dozen centimeters away from the belly of that guy. That guy moved his hair up from his forehead, and looked at me with his black eyes. He was Kurayami. “Like I said, Takemura-kun, raw kazi is definitely useful. It can act as a good defense, but you know what…” As I gave another horizontal swing, Kurayami jumped high up from the ground, with his knees bent and spread in the air at different sides, with his left arm in the middle of his legs, and his right arm up in the air. From his right hand on top, quickly a spherical ball—with light purple at the center and dark violet at the thick outline—formed up in the middle of his fingers. He then, through the forefinger and the middle finger at the back of the ball, flicked the ball towards me. “Raw kazi can be used to attack too!”

The ball hit the ground between my legs and exploded up. BAM! I was thrown back by the explosion. With my body still standing on my bent knees, I looked at the cloud of black around the slender figure of Kurayami as he looked at me, still smiling. “Good that you evaded it.”

“You attacked on the ground on purpose,” I said, looking seriously at him with my eyes as I took breaths in and out with my open mouth.

“Aha! You’re a genius, Takemura-kun,” Kurayami replied with his usual smile. “So you knew I went a little easy on you on purpose.”

“Just get over with it.”

“I didn’t wanna hurt you, kiddo,” Kurayami said.

I stood straight, panting, with my eyes glaring at him, my hands ready in front of my bent body. I then straightened my knees and moved my sword on my right hand on my right side. “I have a question.”

“I know. Ask it out.”

“How do you do raw kazi?” I asked.

Kurayami’s smile got a little bigger from the left side. “Kid, I knew you were interested in this.”

“Then tell me.”

“Okay then.” Kurayami turned to his right, looking towards the stairs at the corner of the basement. “So, you see, kid, raw kazi is just kazi…” he bent his narrowed eyes at me, “in its purest form.” He then turned his head at me and started to walk towards me. TAP. TAP. TAP. “Raw kazi is like giving form to the kazi, but with your mind and your body instead of your sword.” He moved his right hand up, with his forefinger, middle finger, and thumb shaped like they were holding an imaginary ball, and then he flipped the fingers about one eighty. As he flipped them, a violet oval was formed, which soon took the form of a ball. He stopped walking and stood in front of me as I looked at the ball floating in the middle of his fingers. “This is termed as a kazi bomb, and it’s pretty dangerous if done with a good amount of kazi. It’s the simplest technique of raw kazi.”

“And that defense which you did without even moving from your position?”

“That’s a higher form of raw kazi. Whenever someone attacks, we form a little shield-like arc as a form of defense. As it’s done only for a split-second, it generally can’t be seen. It too is quite famous.”

“And any other techniques?” I asked with my serious gaze.

He closed his hand in the form of a fist and the ball disappeared. He then kept his hands on his waist casually. “You see, kiddo, this shit is not really developed as an art form enough until now. It’s mostly up to how creative you can use your raw kazi and to what extent.” He then turned his head to his right, looking at the staircase. “Let’s go then, kid. We’re gonna train here again tomorrow.”

As he started to walk towards the staircase, I turned to the left too and followed him as we walked to the staircase. “Creatively, huh?” I thought. “This shit is different.”

“And I’m gonna learn it. I bet Keisuke must know how to use it.”

***

“I’m ready as fuck, Itsuki. Bring it on.”