บท 6: Chapter 6

-Old man's POV-

Killing. The act of snuffing out someone else's life to nothing.

It's been happening for centuries, whether it be for land, seas or even the sky.

No matter the species, they kill one another in one form or the other.

And when a human does it? some love it, bask it the feeling of watching another's light fade from their eyes.

Some find themselves loathing of what they are becoming, some aren't strong enough to march forward so instead of killing another they end themselves.

The one's that are left, the one's who accept who they are? they never remain the same.

"devil's lance" an apt name for someone who has enough strength to use his hands as a spear. hmm.. should've been called "devil's spear".

He hate's it. Fighting, or well did it's been 5 days since we last spoke. He is interesting to say the least, bloodlust that isn't contained like he's unaware he's is exuding it. that he makes other fighters wary of him,

someone more insane then them. Fun. He improves with every fight, and if rumors are to be believed he has been going to other underground arena's and fighting there and he's not burnt out? Simply amazing. He might be the one.

The one thing that has stood out odd other than his impassive stare towards the world, is him carrying around a wrapped up katana. Again interesting.

-Ryou POV-

"good fight again Devil's Lance, you might be worth something now, no?" the creepy old guy spoke while approaching me

"I guess could've been better but it ended after I stopped messing with him" I reply, grabbing Muramasa and slinging him onto my back I head towards the stairs with the old man walking with me, great.

"You don't know how to use it do you? the katana I mean" Of course he figured it out

"What's it to you? and why do you care? who the pineapple are you?" i retort to him

"ah, yes almost forgot you don't swear. Now as for who I am? I'm someone who could help you with both you're martial arts and Kenjutsu, interested?" I stop and he stops as well, I look him over and he does the same for whatever creepy reason.

Old? check

Has a white beard? check

Probably senile? check

one of the two people who kicked my ass? check

Plums looks like I got a master.

"all right, but it can't affect how often I fight I can tone it down but I-I.. I can't for personal reason stop fighting" Hopefully that's reasonable enough to my now old master

"Hmm, applying what you learn that day in a fight eh? why not you seem to have the endurance very well, lets head towards that park you mope around" What? how did he- know what? not even going to bother.

I didn't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't an oddly helpful and insightful teacher. I thought I would get one of those instructors who showed you something once and then smacked you if you got it wrong. But that didn't happen. Instead, he started slowly, working with my pace and schedule. He taught me how to use the momentum from my opponents' attacks to amplify my own. Judging by his expression, he didn't expect me to learn so quickly, especially after he demonstrated it on me. To my surprise, I didn't expect it either. While I wasn't perfect at it, I began to effectively use this technique against opponents in the arena. It made things much easier.

The old man—who I discovered was named Arata—had me start fighting more than one opponent at once. The crowd went wild when I first took on two fighters simultaneously. When he wasn't teaching me martial arts, he introduced me to the art of the katana. Learning Kenjutsu was fascinating; I knew I couldn't master everything from books or online sources, but learning in person was incredible. It felt like an art form, requiring precision—like running a blade through water without disrupting its flow, or cutting leaves falling to the ground with finesse.

Eventually, I found an underground arena that allowed the use of weapons, so I decided to test my skills. I won easily, though facing one opponent at a time and sparring with Arata had made it feel manageable. Somehow, Arata learned that I breezed through the matches, and he somehow managed to arranged for the arena to ensure that I faced a minimum of two opponents in my next fights. That added a much-needed challenge.

"Ah, sorry, I was monologuing to myself," I hurriedly apologized to the red-faced Kusarigama wielder who threw his chain at me as I rushed toward his dagger-wielding partner.

I managed to catch the blade and wrap it up, but he pulled it from my grip as I was forced to step back and lean right to avoid a potentially dangerous strike from the dagger wielder.

"Hold still, worm!" I was sure I'd heard that before, but whatever. I turned my attention back to the Kusarigama wielder while dodging the dagger. To my surprise, he wasn't moving. It seemed that anyone who faced me often got stuck in some kind of trance, much like I had for the past fifteen days.

"Whoa, that was close! Guess I should stop before he goes berserk, right?" With that thought, I faced the dagger-wielder directly, my right hand shaped like a lance and my left hidden. Using the momentum of his attack, I redirected the dagger to my right, leaning left as though bowling—only instead of a bowling ball, my hand pierced his chest ripping my hand out with his heart in hand.

I now noticed the now-awakened Kusarigama wielder had gone into a frenzy and locked onto me. He threw his chain again, but I dodged, continuing my path. Muramasa was directed at me, but I dodged once more and threw the heart I had just removed at him. He tried to deflect it, and I seized the moment, pushing my weight onto my toes and speeding forward to finish the fight by running my hand through his neck.

"Fight is over! Winner: Devil's Lance!!" Cheers erupted from the crowd of excited onlookers.

'They are all insane' I thought to myself. Arata had called me earlier before the fight, asking me to meet him at the park. I hoped it was good news because I was starving.