Dim dark-blue sky turned orange-blue as the sun rose in the east at 5 o’clock. Clouds have already moved to the west, leaving little clusters of clouds to flow in the sky, glowing orange. As the sun rose, Osaka and its surroundings shone in the light of morning.
The streets were empty except for a few vehicles. Trucks transporting merchandise to the large stores drove more frequently than regular automobiles. In contrast to the bustling nightlife of Tokyo, Osaka seemed dead during the early mornings. It was quiet, and people were jogging or cycling through the empty streets as part of their early morning routines. Most shops were closed, and most buildings had lights off.
Members of the Association, who were unseen by ordinary people while on their daily patrol, concluded their patrolling for the night and switched with the next team. Some of them could do it for days, but according to the regulations, they can’t do it unless there’s an emergency. Night patrol was easy because there were no rifts after the battle. No, it was eradicated, not fought. Among the supernaturals, this was still an unanswered and heated subject.
A line of trucks, escorted by cars, drove through the empty street as the moment of tranquility was shattered. Their headlights shined against the last darkness and illuminated the road ahead.
The street was filled with the sound of thundering motors. It piqued people’s attention, yet they went about their normal lives.
Ichiro was driving casually with one hand on the steering wheel, his thoughts focused on the road. Sure, he was exhausted, but the rising light had given him the energy to stay awake. He opened the windows to enjoy the cold, fresh morning air. The smell of wet asphalt mixed with exhaust fumes invaded his nostrils. He breathed out without noticing it, enjoying the pleasant sensation in his lungs. The wind blew past his cheeks as he exhaled, making his bangs flutter.
Doremi was asleep to his right. She fell asleep an hour and a half ago after chatting and teasing about nothing with Ichiro after driving out. She appeared to be exhausted after her job. Ichiro had learnt nothing about her since she dodged questions about herself. Even when she talked, it was always short sentences that were hard to understand. That was probably intentional; she wanted him to listen to her talk rather than asking her personal details.
The undead guard was adjusting his balaclava on the other side of the truck. He disliked the sun. He was silent for the entire journey, so he was forgotten by the two people chatting.
The peaceful silence was shattered, however, by the shouting voice from the radio. The same man woke everyone up a few hours earlier.
“ATTENTION! WE’RE GETTING CLOSE TO THE POINT OF DELIVERY. GET READY TO GO HOME AFTER THAT!”
No one responded. The voice ended up waking up the Doremi. She woke up suddenly, as if searching for an enemy around her. After confirming that nobody was nearby, she sighed and stretched, and then started yawning. The undead guard literally rolled his eyes at that.
“Hmph. Guess we’re going home~”
Ichiro nodded and put his foot on the accelerator pedal. He drove for almost twelve hours, and he was mentally tired. He wanted a peaceful sleep with no shadow beings lurking in his dream.
After passing through several toll gates and intersections, Ichiro reached his destination: the warehouse he had been two days ago, and the gates were already open because they had been warned of their imminent arrival. Trucks arrived one by one and entered the numbered depots that had been opened. Ichiro was the first to arrive, therefore he entered at the depot labeled ‘1’, just like two days before in reverse order. He parked the vehicle inside the warehouse and exited it. The passengers got out of the truck, stretching their arms and legs. They all had the same expression, which was a mix of fatigue, boredom, and relief.
Ichiro approached the back of the vehicle and opened the door. The entire loading crew standing idly, yawning, with their forklifts ready. They began working as soon as Ichiro gave the signal. They unloaded the boxes, which contained valuable exotic items imbued with spiritual or similar energy.
Ichiro had nothing to do, so he exited the depot and performed some light morning workout he did at the dojo where he used to go with his friends. It involved extending his limbs in stylish motions and positions. He didn’t give it much thought because it was to relieve the stress on his muscles accumulated over the day. His body felt relaxed and refreshed afterwards. The workers and onlookers looked at him as if he were some kind of weirdo, but just a handful of them realized what he was doing. They saw an inconsiderable amount of visible spiritual energy that wasn’t cancelled by the anti-spiritual aura accumulating inside the limb he was stretching in one action, and energy being released in the next. Those who knew about such things were shocked.
The rest simply assumed that he was stretching.
Ichiro was about to finish when he was interrupted by the Doremi from his behind.
“What are you doing, Ichiro-kun?”
“Just a small technique I learnt from the old man at my local dojo. Nothing special.”
He stopped moving and turned around. Doremi stood there with her hands on her hips, looking at him expectantly.
“That’s amazing, Ichiro-kun! I know one as well; my teacher taught me how to do it!”
Doremi showed her motions to Ichiro from a safe distance. She struck the stance and moved her arms in a circular motion above her head while chanting something silently under her breath. Her actions resembled the movements of someone performing Tai Chi. She continued repeating it until she finished and then bowed to Ichiro.
“...“
By Ichiro’s standards, she executed it a little sloppily and her form was sloppy. However, even Ichiro couldn’t deny that there was some power within her moves. She must’ve trained in martial arts or some sort of physical exercise.
“Doremi-chan, you did well, although your leg stance was a little off. You should spread them out further and more diagonally. And...”
Ichiro, with a somewhat serious expression, pointed at the ground and said “and”, mimicking the position of the feet and toes in her stances. Doremi immediately understood what he meant and corrected her posture accordingly. Once she completed the adjustments, she repeated the entire process once more, and was surprised by how much simpler it got to accumulate energy in each step.
“Wow! This is easy! Thanks, Ichiro-san!”
She thanked him with a smile.
Ichiro chuckled softly and shook his head. Finally, his old master’s teachings were useful. He had expected no one would learn from those techniques, let alone someone like Doremi. She asked a question after that.
“Ichiro-kun, is the name of the man from whom you learnt Okuninushi by chance?”
Ichiro paused for a few seconds, recalling the master’s name, before opening his mouth.
“No. I believe his name was Takemi-something? No one spoke his name, calling him ‘Grandmaster’ instead.”
His memories were full of other things than names. He remembered how he was told to call him Grandmaster and never called him anything else. Ichiro recalled the way he treated him, and how happy he was whenever he saw Ichiro practice his techniques. He put more care for him than his friends, even his kendo master friend, and taught him everything he knew about the martial arts. He also taught him philosophy, and he often argued with him on various topics.
However, he didn’t recall the man’s name. He couldn’t remember his face either, despite having spent many years training together. All he could picture was an old Japanese gentleman wearing black robes and white gloves, smiling kindly at him.
Doremi interrupted his memories from overflowing in nostalgia by opening her mouth.
“My teacher was a rival to him a long time ago, and she want to track him down and challenge him to a duel. As part of a training, she gave me the mission of finding him. Sigh, I’ve been looking for him for a year now~“
Her tone changed abruptly and became bitter. Ichiro guessed that she might have lost interest in continuing the search.
“Man, that sucks. Good luck with that. Do you want me to question an old man about Okuninushi? If he’s still in the martial arts industry, he’s maybe connected somehow. Maybe I can find out who he is based on his connections.”
“Sure, that’d be great~ That is a promise~“
Doremi smiled and grabbed Ichiro’s arm. Ichiro said that because he didn’t see his master for two years now. Since he started working, he rarely had time to visit the dojo anymore. With this promise to her, it was an ideal excuse to visit again. Besides, he needed to see his old master one last time, just in case...
After a few minutes of talking about martial arts, someone phoned Doremi, and she ran away after saying goodbye to Ichiro. He returned to the truck only to find that the warehouse loaders had already finished, leaving the vehicle empty, and they were now assisting other teams in unloading other trucks. Ichiro shut the back door of the truck and searched for the organizer. He was supervising the nearby loaders when Ichiro found him. Ichiro approached him and informed him that his truck was empty and that he may return home. Organizer recognized this and handed him the paperwork. Ichiro needs to hand it over to his boss, along with the other paperwork from previous deliveries that were kept in the compartment. He said his goodbyes to everyone and returned to his truck.
Ichiro drove out to the gates, planning to return home, before recalling the beer he owed. He looked for the guard with whom he had talked, but he couldn’t find him. He drove away, assuming it wasn’t his shift, and left the warehouse behind.
The man whom he spoke, however, was watching at him from the windows from his office. Hidetaka, a spiritual defence master, was watching him complete the exercise from start to finish. He was still perplexed why Ichiro had broken through the barrier. He performed the same technique and place a small barrier in front of the first depot and monitored it. But Ichiro didn’t break it. He simply bypassed it. Hidetaka was even more surprised by this. Ichiro’s exercise confused him even more. It was unlike any of his own exercises.
There was no doubt that Ichiro possessed powerful spiritual energy, but he displayed no ability to control it properly. Therefore, Hidetaka decided not to interfere with his experiment, and observed. After driving away, Hidetaka went to the windows and sat on the office chair, cradling his head. His brain was aching.
“What a bizarre man he is. Heh. Looks like I still have room for improvement.”
Hidetaka mumbled to himself these words. Hidetaka’s competitive spirit flamed brighter within him. He hadn’t felt that way since his teenage years, when he was still learning the defensive arts. He returned his fatigued gaze to the windows, where he could see the tranquil ocean gleaming in the early sun. There was a sense of peace in his heart. A calmness he had forgotten existed during the past two decades. Perhaps he had truly lived a boring life until today.
***
Ichiro arrived in his apartment building twenty minutes later. He parked the truck in the mini-parking lot, removed his motorcycle armor, exited, and locked the truck. Ichiro greeted the guard he knew and ascended the stairs. He got to his floor and headed to his apartment after unlocking the door.
“I’m home.”
Ichiro murmured to himself and nobody else heard. The lights were dimmed, and the curtains were drawn. Ichiro entered the living area and went to the bathroom, removed his clothes, washed his face. Then he went to bed. He lay on top of the covers without removing them. Sleep came easily and quickly, and he fell asleep almost instantly.
I hope you enjoyed this slow-paced chapter. After the dream scene, I'll try to increase the pace in the next chapters. In the next episode, there will be some punching action!
Rewriten 04/12/2022
Increased a pace a bit. Not much though.
Added few lines describing the master.
Changed dialogue slightly, and fixed a few mistakes.
Here's extra for opening the spoiler:
Hidetaka Umezaki, spiritual defence master
i love how he is casually and unconsciously breaking everyones minds