Ichitsu's Training

Ishihaya takes Akihira to the place where he will be trained and then after 5 days he comes back and takes Ichitsu to the place he will be trained.

Ishihaya takes Ichitsu to a forest that only people who could use magic could enter.

"So, what am I doing here?" Ichitsu asks.

"I will train you to control your powers more and also teach you some moves, obviously the moves won't be same as mine but you will learn more as you train." Ishihaya replies.

Ishihaya then takes Ichitsu to a cave that was in the forest.

"Alright, so this is where you will begin your training." Ishihaya says.

"Wh-I can't see anything in here, it's pitch black." Ichitsu says.

"You're training begins now, you have to dodge my attacks and try to hit me at the same time." Ishihaya says

"Wait, are you serious?!" Ichitsu asks.

Ishihaya ignores Ichitsu's question and throws a wooden sword towards Ichitsu which hits his head.

"Ow, hey watch it!" Ichitsu says in annoyance.

"You'll use that to try and hit me, if you can that is. Now start!" Ishihaya says.

"Okay, here we go" Ichitsu says.

Ichitsu tries to see Ishihaya but wasn't able to see him, he swings his sword randomly and completely misses.

"You're going to need to try a lot harder than that, at this rate you won't even be able to touch me." Ishihaya says.

"Oh we'll just see about that" Ichitsu says as he swings his sword and misses.

"Agh! This is so damn frustrating!" Ichitsu says.

Ichitsu tries again and hears a slight movement and swings his sword there. He hits a hard rock, Ishihaya then light's a lamp he brought. Ishihaya was nowhere near from where Ichitsu had swung his sword.

"What am I even supposed to be getting out of this?" Ichitsu asks.

"Alright, we'll get back to this, come outside." Ishihaya says.

Ishihaya then takes Ichitsu out of the cave.

"Now, draw your sword." Ishihaya says.

"Oh okay." Ichitsu says.

Ichitsu then grabs the sheath of his sword with his left hand and grabs the sword's hilt with right hand and starts to pull the sword out. As Ichitsu pulls the sword out completely, a slight gush of wind was felt by Ishihaya.

"So, what do I need to do?" Ichitsu asks.

"First of all, you barely have any control over your power. I could tell that much the second you touched the hilt." Ishihaya replies.

"How do I learn to control it?" Ichitsu asks.

"Control it by using it of course, the more you use your power, the more you'll start to get the hang of it." Ishihaya replies.

"Makes sense i guess." Ichitsu says.

"Now..."

Ishihaya says as he walks towards a bunch of trees.

"Try to slash all these with your sword in one attack."

"Just some trees? THAT'S EASY" Ichitsu says in a cocky tone.

"We'll just see about that." Ishihaya says.

Ichitsu then swings his sword, but could barely cut into the tree.

"What in the world?! What kind of trees are these?!" Ichitsu says in surprised tone.

"haha, what'd you expect? Even a normal sword can cut into a normal tree. But these trees are special trees." Ishihaya says.

"Alright then, let's see if this will work." Ichitsu says.

Ichitsu then holds up both of his hands close to each other in front of him and closes his eyes just as he does a dark purple aura is formed in a shape of a blade.

"An artifical shadow blade, clever." Ishihaya thinks to himself.

"HOW ABOUT THIS!! SHADOW SLASHHH!" Ichitsu grabs the shadow with his right hand and slashes the tree.

This causes a lot of dust to be blown around.

"Did I get it?!" Ichitsu says in anticipation.

When the dust clears he sees that tree was unharmed.

"What the hell? I was sure I hit it." Ichitsu says.

"Didn't you hear me? These are special trees." Ishihaya says.

"What makes them so special?" Ichitsu asks.

"They are imbued with the special life energy of this land their called 'Serenity Trees' since only people who can use magic can enter it, there are only a few who even know of this place and because of that it's been a quiet and peaceful place for centuries which also explains their name. Also it has a strong barrier protecting it from magic, so if you try to use magic to cut them like you did just now it will just be deflected if not strong enough." Ishihaya explains.

"Oh I see, didn't know there were trees that were this special." Ichitsu says.

"Yep, this is the second part of your training. You're goal to break that barrier and succesfully cut the tree" Ishihaya says.

"He got me good." Ichitsu thinks to himself.

"Start by trying to cut one down, we'll keep at it until you can do that." Ishihaya says.

Ichitsu takes few more swings at it, but ultimately just leaves some scratches.

After 2 weeks of constantly training in the cave and slashing the tree, Ishihaya grows weary.

"Still haven't figured it out, sheath your sword." Ishihaya says.

"Uh okay." Ichitsu says as he puts his sword back into it's scabbard.

"Now focus Ichitsu, slowly concentrate your power and close your eyes and visualize it flowing through your arm and pour it into the sword when you touch it, like water flowing through a pipe into a container." Ishihaya says.

"Okay, I'll try." Ichitsu says as he nods.

Ichitsu then closes his eyes and imagine's his magic flowing through his body and into his arm. He then grabs the handle of his sword and pours his power into the sword for a few seconds and draw's his sword as he drew the sword the dark purple aura starts to flow out of the sword that takes shape into a menacing scythe.

"Haaaa!!" Ichitsu screams as opens his eyes and slashes the tree with all his might.

As he slashes the tree, he could see the barrier that Ishihaya had talked about. When the sword collided with the barrier the surrounding area was blown away by the insane force produced, Ishihaya jumps back just before the collision occured.

As the dust clears ishihaya sees Ichitsu had managed to cut the tree straight in half.

"THAT'S INCREDIBLE ICHITSU! YOU DID IT!" Ishihaya says in excitement.

Ichitsu then fell down on one knee with both hands on his sword which was put in the ground.

"Heh, told you I'd do it." Ichitsu says as he collapses.

Before Ichitsu could hit the ground face first Ishihaya catches him by putting his left arm in front of Ichitsu, breaking the fall.

Ichitsu then wakes up at near dawn and sees Ishihaya sitting infront of a campfire on a log of wood.

"You're up, I see." Ishihaya says.

"So I passed out huh?" Ichitsu asks.

"Yep, even though you managed to cut the tree. It was really inefficient you took too long to charge and used so much magic power that your entire body had to compensate or your arms would've completely been destroyed that's what caused you to collapse out of exhaustion." Ishihaya explains.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Guess I messed up" Ichitsu says.

"It's alright, for a first try it was pretty incredible." Ishihaya reassures Ichitsu.

"Thanks." Ichitsu says.

"That's enough, this will be all your training. Be sure to practice everyday and you're training will only be over when you can slice through the trees from this point of the forest to the other side only about 1.5 Kilometers and learn to see in that dark cave using just your powers. I'll be taking my leave now." Ishihaya says.

"Alright, WAIT WHAT- you're leaving? WHO'S GONNA HELP WITH THE TRAINING IN THE CAVE THEN?!" Ichitsu asks in confusion.

"Oh, my bad, forgot about that." Ishihaya says.

Ishihaya then brings his palms together.

"Light clone" Ishihaya says.

Then suddenly Ishihaya's body starts to glow brightly and and the light forms into the shape of a human and when the light fades a clone of Ishihaya is seen.

"There we are, he's gonna help you with your training." Ishihaya says as he points to the clone.

"A Clone?! How is that even possible?!" Ichitsu asks in shock.

"Don't sweat the details! Alright, gotta go now keep training hard and remember don't use the slash attack until you've learned to properly control your power output!" Ishihaya says as he jumps away at fast speed.

"HEY WA- damn that guy" Ichitsu says as he sighs.

By this time, the sun had started to rise.

"Alright come on, let's begin training." Ishihaya's clone says.

"Uh sure, let's go-" Ichitsu stops talking as he sees something like a shadow from the corner of his eye.

"You coming?" Ishihaya's clone says after turning around.

"Yeah, just gimme a minute." Ichitsu says.

"Alright, then I'll be waiting for you in the cave." Ishihaya's clone says as he walks away.

"Thanks." Ichitsu says as he grips the scabbard of his sword and goes towards the direction where he saw the shadow figure.

After walking in the forest for a few minutes and Ichitsu starts to look around everywhere.

"Was I just imagining things?" Ichitsu thinks to himself.

As Ichitsu is thinking he spots the figure again from the corner of his eye but barely this time.

"THERE!" Ichitsu says as he moves some bushes away with his hands.

He then sees a baby fox run away from inside the bush.

"I guess it was my imagination. Couldn't have been, that shadow thing had to have been real, it felt real." Ichitsu thinks.

As Ichitsu is thinking, he hears something from one of the bushes behind him, Ichitsu suddenly turns around and grabs the handle of his sword.

"WHO'S THERE?!" Ichitsu asks in a loud tone.

As Ichitsu says a person comes out from the bushes and attacks Ichitsu with a sword but he was able to dodge the swing.

Ichitsu then sees a crazy-looking guy with messy brown hair and sharp teeth, wearing only a brown sleeveless shirt and standard jeans.

"Who are you?! What do you want from-"

Ichitsu was cut off when the man suddenly jumped swings his sword and just before his attack hit, Ichitsu pulls out his sword just in time and deflects the attack, and get's knocked back into a clearing in the middle of the forest because of the sheer power.

"You're pretty decent with that thing." the man speaks with a crazy smile on his face.

"You asked who I am, I am a travelling merchant and swordsman name's Rikiyuki Ineko." the man says.

"I see an interesting sword, I take it...by any means necessary...and your sword....I've never seen anything like it." Rikiyuki says as he laughs maniacally in excitement.

"Now, be a good boy and hand over that sword and no one will get hurt." Rikiyuki says.

"No way! I'm not just gonna hand this over to you!" Ichitsu says.

"You forced my hand kid, I really didn't want to do this." Rikiyuki says.

Suddenly rikiyuki jumps towards ichitsu and puts his sword behind his back and swings his sword downwards going for Ichitsu's neck but Ichitsu hunches forward and swings his sword upwards at perfect timing to counter rikiyuki's attack.

Rikiyuki then flips and lands behind Ichitsu but suddenly charges towards him with the intent to kill. He swings with power but Ichitsu manages to block it, as they stood there with their swords clashed together.

"Give up now, before you have to suffer." Rikiyuki says.

"Never!" Ichitsu says.

He then angle's his sword and deflect's Rikiyuki's blade which causes rikiyuki to be thrown off balance then Ichitsu sees an opening.

"I'VE GOT YOU!" Ichitsu says.

Rikiyuki smiles.

"Your a fool!" Rikiyuki says.

Rikiyuki then grips his blade harder and covers it in magic power and swings his blade towards Ichitsu sword. As it hit from the point of impact it caused wind to be blown at high speeds and Ichitsu's sword was instantly deflected and he was knocked back into a tree injuring his head and causing blood to flow down from Ichitsu's head down to his right eye which made him have to close it.

"Ow, what in the world just happened?!" Ichitsu asks in confusion.

"Just decided to stop holding back, that's all." Rikiyuki says.

As Ichitsu was standing up a straight piercing attack suddenly started coming towards Ichitsu, he was just barely able to dodge it.

"Dammit, I have no choice I have to use my slash." Ichitsu thinks.

"Don't use the slash attack until you've learned to properly control your power output!" Ichitsu remembers Ishihaya's words.

"Sorry Ishihaya but it's the only way I can think of to get out of this situation." Ichitsu says to himself.

"Alright Sword HUNTER! You want my sword?!" Ichitsu says as he dodges rikiyuki's attack and jumps on a tree.

"THEN COME AND GET IT!" Ichitsu then jumps down from the tree and behind Rikiyuki.

Ichitsu then clutches his scabbard with his left hand and grabs the sword handle with his right hand and tries to focus, but rikiyuki doesn't give him enough time and attacks Ichitsu, Ichitsu opens his eyes and dodges.

"Damn, I don't have enough time to charge. I've got to concentrate with my eyes open." Ichitsu thinks while still dodging Rikiyuki.

Ichitsu concentrates and visualizes what Ishihaya told him while trying to effectively dodge rikiyuki. His reflexes were sloppy so Ichitsu get's cuts all across his body.

He visualizes water flowing down from a tube into a small container, he realizes if that container overflows he's utilizing too much magic power. He focuses more and closes his eyes for a second.

"NOW!" Ichitsu suddenly opens his eyes.

This made rikiyuki hesitate. Ichitsu grasps his scabbard with his left hand and the handle of his sword with his right hand, a dark purple aura started to form around ichitsu which made rikiyuki angry.

"THIS IS POINTLESS! WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT'S GONNA DO?!" Rikiyuki says in anger.

Then Rikiyuki charged towards Ichitsu.

"JUST DIE ALREADY!!!" Rikiyuki screams.

As he says that Rikiyuki's sword's get's enveloped in his brown colored magic and Ichitsu started running towards Rikiyuki and he unsheaths his sword and grabs it both of his hands, the dark purple aura around ichitsu's sword thickened and took the shape of a scythe.

"TAKE THIS! SHADOW SCYTHE!" Ichitsu screams.

Ichitsu and Rikiyuki clash swords and caused a big explosion which blew away the surroundings and uprooted a few trees that were the closest.

Meanwhile Ishihaya's clone who was laying down on top of the cave with his hand behind his head chewing on a piece of grass saw the dust that was blown around from a distance.

"So they meet, earlier than expected." Ishihaya's clone says to himself.

"I should probably head towards them before he goes overboard like usual." Ishihaya's clone says to himself.

He get's up and starts going towards Ichitsu's direction.

As the dust cleared around Ichitsu and Rikiyuki, they were on opposite sides of each other. Then suddenly a wound was inflicted above Ichitsu's left shoulder and blood sprayed out for a second and Ichitsu fell down on one knee and looked behind at Rikiyuki.

Then Rikiyuki turns around and starts laughing.

"Hahahaha!! GUESS IT'S SAFE TO SAY....you've won..." Rikiyuki says as he collapses.

Ichitsu then returned his sword to it's scabbard and somehow manages to get up on his feet. Then Ishihaya's clone arrives.

"Woah, you sure made a mess. For the first time you didn't go too far Rikiyuki, here let me help you up." Ishihaya's clone says.

"Yeah well, kid's got potential couldn't let that potential go to waste." Rikiyuki says.

The clone then goes towards Rikiyuki and helps him up by grabbing his hand.

"WAIT, WHAT'S GOING ON?! ISHIHAYA EXPLAIN!." Ichitsu asks in confusion.

"Oh well this is as he might have told you 'Rikiyuki Ineko' he was the other person tasked with protecting the Hero along with me." Ishihaya's clone explains.

"Oh I see, but why was he attacking me?" Ichitsu asks.

"It's because Ishihaya asked him to, He can't train both you and Akihira at the same time so he asked him for help and as you can see he agreed to help, so from now on he'll be the one training you and I'll be here just spectating to let the real Ishihaya know your progress, even though he was holding back a lot. It's amazing how you beat him." Ishihaya's clone explains.

"Alright, let's go treat both of your injuries." Ishihaya's clone says.

"Okay." Ichitsu says.

Ishihaya's clone and Rikiyuki walked away, Ichitsu looks up to the sky.

"Once we meet again, I will be stronger than you.....Akihira" Ichitsu thinks.

END OF CHAPTER 8