19. ...Open But, Don't Wake…

I was confident that I could handle this in an easier way now.

I had funds to buy passage and a decent meal or two. I even had enough for comfortable lodgings if I chose.

I moved my hand and felt the weight of the coins against my thigh.

The pouch was warm and gave me confidence that I wouldn't have to choose between the life of a person who didn't do anything to me or the life of everyone I would save in the final timeline.

Warm like blood and cold as the steel of my will within the coin pouch and within my soul.

I smoothed out the wrinkles of my black kimono as I felt the weight of the daisho at my hip settle comfortably against my body.

The hilt was warm.

I knew inside, it too, was a cool touch- of death- and of steel- that offered a silent promise.

I Held tight to the hilt of the blades and felt my strength surge.

I knew that I was ready for whatever was next.

---

This city, I could feel from deep within my soul, as I looked around from outside its gates, was full of both opportunities and dangers.

I decided that I needed to tread carefully.

My path was clear.

I needed to make a name for myself. A name that would open doors, and perhaps more importantly, force that obstinate recruiter's hand.

He would bend to my presence, one way or another.

I wouldn't wait for the 'proper time,' from a person who would kill anyone who disagreed violently, even if they were 'a kid.'

He had the strength to take me apart easily, but killing me was his best idea as a person who looked like a child.

I decided that I would find a way to make him show his true colors to someone who mattered, too.

Shaking myself from my rapid contemplations as my mind became sharp due to my focus returning, I began to move.

I approached the gates. I watched as the bored-looking guard barely registered my presence before he waved me through.

His eyes tracked me and then narrowed as I tried to pass without paying.

There goes my hope of entering for free.

I felt for the coins in my pouch and handed them to him as he began to open his mouth to protest.

Then his hand twitched before he took his payment, that I noticed.

I'm pretty sure he thought I was going to attack him.

I gave him a two finger salute as I handed him the coins with deliberate slowness.

He shook his head and waved me off, all without speaking.

I saw a smirk at the corner of his lips as I turned to leave.

The city sprawled before me as a labyrinth of winding streets and towering buildings that seemed to stack precariously upon each other. I moved past the stacked housing that made me nervous, and headed into the area with the food stalls.

The air was thick with a group of scents that I wasn't quite sure about. Maybe they were incense from sandalwood? I couldn't actually figure out the smell's identity due to the mix of dust that made it too hard to tell.

Was that cinnamon?

Where is that lavender coming from?

REMEMBER! THOSE AREN'T THE SCENTS, AT THIS TIME, AT THIS LOCATION! THINK!

I shook my head from those frivolous thoughts.

I could hear the rhythmic clang of a blacksmith's hammer from somewhere down the street. Each strike echoed with a force that made me wonder just how hard you had to hit a metal ingot to make a sound that traveled so far.

The midday sun beat down relentlessly from above. It felt like a physical weight on my shoulders as its rays burned with the desert's fury.

Yet surprisingly, my body, which had been strengthened by Kirin's training had barely registered the heat. I realized that I had grown accustomed to the bone-deep chills of the training realm, and to the brutal trials of endless combat.

The desert climate that was once a source of discomfort, now felt almost invigorating.

My first order was information gathering, I realized.

I needed a place where I could test my skills and I could push myself beyond my limits.

I needed to hone the swordsmanship that Kirin had so ruthlessly drilled into me.

I figured that dojos were the obvious choice, but I knew that I couldn't settle for just any dojo.

I knew to the core of my being that I needed a challenge that the world would use to forge me into a blade like a crucible would be used to melt metals into a mold.

I would shape myself and begin to forge my body and mind through investigating and fighting there.

As I looked into the board and found several shady and probably evil options.

I could forge myself into a sharp blade, not by training there, but by exposing them.

I browsed through the bulletin board I had found in the marketplace. I watched as people darted past, their gazes fixed ahead, ignoring the board completely. Its surface was covered with a chaotic jumble of flyers.

Most were scams, a few were real, and there was one blatant trap.

I pulled down a copy of each, my fingers brushing against the rough paper as my eyes scanned the text. My focus honed in on anything that would serve my purpose.

After I finished going through them all, I realized that my interest had been caught by one flyer in particular. It was for a dojo that sounded too good to be true.

'Gain a secret technique from the Grand Darkness Dojo! We teach the sleeper blade arts as well as other styles!'

The flyer was vague and continued with wording that was full of hollow promises. I felt that even the name itself was like a warning that they didn't want to give, but had to reluctantly.

As if they were hinting that their advertising was for something darker than what they were apparently seeking to sell.