Sensei Kaminari

Pulling the black van into a parking lot, I noticed nine cars. The other nine participants. I grab Kirihirakimasu and the backpack filled with money. Earlier, I had counted 400,000 dollars.

I take off my mask and cloak, laying them in the back of the van. While I was back there, I changed into normal clothes. I wore a black t-shirt that had a person walking in the rain with his hood down. above him was a quote, "Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs." I also wore my normal black sweatpants, with the knee guards.

I put Kirihirakimasu around my back, making sure it's tight enough so nobody steals it. I decided I would just carry the backpack.

Walking out from the back of the van, I look across the street at the dojo. I was shocked at how basic it looked.

The dojo is located in Colorado, in a small city called Cañon City. It's a nice and suburban city with only about 17,000 people currently living here.

The dojo stands side by side with other shops. It has huge windows where you can see inside and a sign standing above the door that says "Kaminari kendo dojo."

I hurry and cross the street. When I get to the door, I open it.

Ding.

Walking inside, I'm not that surprised at what I see. Training mats and wooden katanas. The wooden katanas lay neatly on a rack.

Looking towards the center of the dojo, I see nine people standing in a horizontal line, facing away from the door.

"Hello. I'm assuming you're the tenth participant. We have been waiting for a while. Come over here and pay up. Then you can join them."

I look to my left. There lays a desk, and sitting behind the desk, on a chair, is a woman. The woman has long brown hair that reaches her abdomen. She wears glasses, but behind those glasses are some of the most beautiful and intelligent brown eyes I have ever seen.

I walk over to her.

"To make sure you are Daniel Rodway? aren't you?" The woman asks me.

"Yes, that would be me." I answer.

I watch her eyes look up at my face. She tries her best to read my expression but gets nowhere. Finally, She asks me.

"What happened to your eye?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." I say, holding my empty left eye socket.

"That's fine. Anyway, my name is Taylor. I'm Kaminari's daughter, or your sensei's daughter. I will be assisting my father in training everyone. Now, if you would be so kind, I need 10,000 dollars." She says very quickly.

I put my backpack on the floor. I unzip the backpack and grab ten stacks of money.

I'm glad they had a washer on the way here because I wouldn't have had any legal money if they didn't.

I put the stacks of money on the desk. Then zip the backpack up.

"Now, go stand in line." Taylor demands.

Quickly, I toss my backpack against a wall. Then, stand on the far right side of the line.

When I step in the line, I hear a door shut. Then, a man comes walking into the center of the room. He stands right in front of us. The man is somewhere in his 50s. He has a long goatee. The hair on his chin reaches the bottom of his neck. The mustache connecting with his chin air. The hair on his head is in a man bun, colored white, just like his goatee. This man has deep brown eyes.

"I'm Kaminari, your sensei. Now, I realize this dojo is expensive, but I want all of you to realize that you will be trained by the best swordsman the world has on record. If all of you try your hardest, you will exit this place as one of the best swordsmen or swordswoman in the world. And I mean all of you, no exceptions." The old man says.

Kaminari looks over everyone, studying them slowly, starting from his right and going left. When he stops on me, his eyes turn a dark shade.

"But! Sometimes, there are some exceptions, like people who are physically not able or they don't have the spirit to keep up with everyone else, such people will be kicked out, so if anyone in here would like to leave right now and keep your money then go ahead, everyone else, grab a wooden katana."

I walk over to a wooden katana, slowly laying Kirihirakimasu on the ground, I grab the wooden blade. We all get back in line. No one seemed to have wanted to quit.

"Good. Though some of you should have gone ahead and quite, but it's not my choice, I suppose, yet. Anyway, I'm going to pair each one of you against one person. You will fight the person I pair you with, but you will only be using a sword, no abilities, or hand to hand combat. Got it. Now, I want Luke and Caleb. Patric and Vanessa. Zero and Daniel. Lucy and Lollipop. And finally, Magnus and David. Now that you know your pairs, pick a training mat and begin."

I look around cluelessly. Who is Zero?

"Hello."

I jump. Turning around, there is a man just standing behind me.

"Your Daniel, my partner."

"I guesse are you Zero?"

"Yes."

This man has a dark, slow voice. Taking a look at his face. He has silver hair that goes down to his eyes, in curls. His eyes are strangely silver, too. He has a half grown beard, which is also colored silver. I noticed a scar that starts at his left eyebrow and reaches his beard.

Looking into his eyes. I see a killer. He has the eyes of someone who takes pleasure in it, too.

We walk to a training mat, stepping across from each other. We both raise our wooden katanas at the same time. Aiming the katana at one another.

I start to count down. "Five... Four... Three... Two... One."

Immediately, we both dash at each other. We lock swords. Pushing against each other, neither of us seems to gain any ground. Until I start using all my strength.

I push with an incredible amount of force. His sword begins to get closer to him. Realizing I'm overpowering him in the sword lock, he parries the attack and dashes backward.

I dash towards him again. I'm not letting him get away again. I perform a slash attack, but he dodges to the left. For the split second, this happens. I can't see him one bit. That's when he attacks me.

I feel an incredible amount of force hit me on the left side of my head. I get knocked to the ground.

"I win." Zero says.