A lone Daisuke stands on top of a tree overlooking a Hokubu Town from an elevated peak of the hillside. The bright clear day allows him to spot even the curved horizon over the sea. And still something is in his mind, his eyes narrow, recalling the past.
{"rumor has it that a foreign Reichi has been bothering the locals-" Oldie revealed}
{"Is it you, the cause for all this disturbances?" the Chiikikou interrogates}
"it... could it be..?"
The vast open landscape has no answer to his question, and yet it seems like he got the response he needed. He soon drops down from the tree, swallowed by the forest.
Overlooking the same sunny morning, in a girl's bedroom, Mizuki sits awake on a bed.
{"yeah, the Chii- Raiyu chan is a human" Daisuke's words echoed}
{scenes of yesterday's killing fills her mind. The sight of Raiyu's distorted face and gasp as the dagger intrudes her spinal cord plagues her mind.}
Suddenly an urge wells from inside. her throat swells, her stomach churns. She rushes to the bathroom and throws her face towards the sink, she feels like throwing up.
Gagging a couple times, but nothing comes out. The only thing surfaces is the aching sensation from her abdomen and esophagus convincing her that she has something to vomit. Nothing but a blank shot.
She goes through this several times before finally her body learns to calm down.
"Mii chan? Are you okay? Are you feeling well?"
Fuuka's dulled concern greets Mizuki through the door.
"I'm okay, Mom"
"If you're feeling sick you should just stay home for today"
Her mother adds.
But the door clacks open before Fuuka can further motion her proposal, her daughter greets her in a blinding grin and an enthusiastic face,
"No, I'm good. I'll get ready now"
At school, as the murmurs of highschool students fill the gap between classroom sessions, Daisuke quietly observes Mizuki from his seat. Right now she looks just like any other girl in the classroom. A little introverted, minding only her own business, but otherwise just another highschool girly.
As the bell rings the end or the school hour, the clamor of highschoolers fill the building. At the school gate, Mizuki is waiting for someone. Occasionally peeking into the school yard as students pour out of the main door.
'Where is he...? he's the one who told me to meet here'
"Let's get going"
His sudden invitation spooks her out of her hiding spot.
"Waah! Can you stop that?!"
She recollects herself.
"And what's this all of a sudden? Don't we have training today?"
"A change of pace"
He answers briefly, then bringing his bandaged hand to his face,
"To rejoice in these halcyon days, is a luxury I can seldom afford"
"What's up with that? And what's wrong with your hand?"
She asks
"For any moment now, the kingdom of the abyss might steal our tranquility"
"Oh.."
She finally clocks in on the schtick.
'this is gonna be annoying..'
As he keeps on rambling about the dark kingdom on his tail and the secret dark power lurking in his hand, she just enjoys the beachside view. The same road they were going to meet Raiyu before. Only this time, that reality seems so distant in the past even though it's only been a day.
"Oyh Mizuki! Mizuki of the Azure Blade"
Mizuki snaps out of her deep thoughts, the guy in question is calling her from quite some distance. Already on another road while Mizuki is mindlessly heading in a different direction. Hurriedly she joins him.
"Are you feeling okay?"
She's caught off guard by that question. Unsure if this is one of his schtick or his genuine concern.
"I'm... fine.."
"I see..."
He responds briefly,
"Then that's good because the Kingdom calls forth for our-"
And he continues rambling out his delusional settings. Though that did not distract her from the fact that they're heading down a different path than usual. Before the long road leading into the hillside road, Daisuke took a turn directly towards the bottom of the first hill out of town. A secluded route, overgrown with bushes and shrubs. A rarely traversed path.
Her heart beats faster as she follows him down the dark passage. Not knowing what she's signing up for, unlike the familiar road earlier, the thrill of the unknown keeps her awake this time.
The trees hang low as it hugs the narrow path, the rocky hillside wall creeps closer. As they gradually rise higher and higher, she realizes they're moving up the hill.
"Umm Daisuke kun?"
She finally asks
"Where are we going?"
"fret not, our destination draws near"
He convinces her.
Soon enough, the sense foliage give ways to an opening amidst the woods. A vast meadow surrounded by wall of trees, and chunks of large stone nails the center. As if they had just entered someone's secret lawn in the middle of the forest.
Though they can see up until the other side of Hokubu Town and the next town over from here, the angle of the open land makes it harder to spot from the town itself.
"Amazing...!"
Spontaneously she thinks out loud.
"Isn't it? The last bastion of our secret order often gathers here to strategize and even-"
"Yeah yeah, just tell me why we're here"
Ignoring his verbose intro, she cuts him off before he prolongs it.
"Prepare your body and mind, Mizuki of the Azure Blade!"
To which she jerked a little, a tad anxious of his next sentence.
"For here will be our new training ground"
She calms back down,
"O-ooh! So that's what it is"
"Indeed, for the suffocating concrete walls of men can no longer contain your bursting power"
"Ah yea, you mentioned yesterday that we'll start training Reihado"
But Daisuke seems at a loss for words, not from shock but disappoinment. His eyelids drooping down, lower lips hung open.
"I expect no less from my trusted confidante"
He rebound, proceeding to fold his sleeves pass his elbow, revealing his arm wrapped in bandages from who knows where. A coat of SP (Spiritual Properties) envelopes his hand and immediately reshapes itself, forming a straighter edge and crescent end. With one swift motion, he swing towards the rock from where he's standing, a hundred meters away. But following the motion of his swing is a tide of his SP, forming a sharp boomerang-shaped projectile, flying straight into the rocks and chipping away it's peak before passing through and vanishing into thin air through it.
{scenes of Raiyu's unleashing a barrage of similar looking projectiles flashes over Mizuki's mind}
"This is.. similar to that time"
"Yes, Mizuki of the Azure"
He confirms her guess as he takes a step forward
"This is Reihado-"
Walking toward the rocks in the middle of the field and gestures her to follow,
"An accumulation of Reichitsu into a stronger formation that you can use for utility, defense-"
he points towards the damage done unto the rocks up close,
"and of course, offense"
"Ooh, let's go!"
Mizuki punches the air in enthusiasm.
"What are we waiting for? Teach me how to do it!"
For a brief second he's just observing silently, gauging her reaction perhaps.
"Then-"
He breaks out of the pause,
"let's embark on the eternal quest. To your fated path in reaching-"
"Don't bother with that, just skip it, SKIIIP!"
Mizuki retorts.
"To form Reihado is actually nothing alien to you, Mizuki kun of the Azure"
He reveals his SP which soon takes the shape of a jar.
"In fact, your past craftsmanship was already a step beyond Reihado"
"Eh? What do you mean?"
Mizuki
"You mean the glass jar thing?"
"For even the most brittle of glass shards can puncture the eyes of the giant"
He dramatizes the explanation, acting it out like he's part of the drama club.
"Uhh translation please...?"
She finally gave up trying to understand.
"To put it in a common tongue, you've mastered riding a horse before you learnt how to run"
"I- I see.."
She just nods slowly,
"Wait no- that's definitely not what you just said"
He only smiles proudly without looking at her.
"To change your Reichitsu into an existing material or element, is the process of Kishin Jutsu"
But during that process, your Reichitsu undergoes a transition state before adopting the nature of whatever you wills it to.
"This transitional state is Reihado"
"Huh, so it's like an unfinished Kishin Jutsu"
"As expected of my partner, your hunch is as sharp as always"
"Eh, is that useful? it's unfinished"
"Well well, just witness"
He readies another coating of Reichitsu on his arm,
"the best thing about Reihado is precisely-"
As he drag them through his motion, the slimy but ethereal texture of the SP turns into a lighter material that flutters in the wind,
"Because it hasn't decide what it wants to be"
The flowy textile SP follows his movement and by the end of it's track, it hardens. Piercing through trees like magical lance before dissipating.
Mizuki just claps,
"I see.. I never thought of that"
"Actually-"
He corrects her
"You have thought of it"
Mizuki tilts her head in confusion.
However, a stone's throw away from where they're practicing, something stalks. It emits a low growl as it observe them. The thick blanket of leaves hide it's presence as it lurks.
After a while, as the duo are too busy training, a mysterious presence approaches, fast.
Suddenly flying past them, upward into the sky and back, is a silhouette of a flying beast. The rush of wind following it's flight path spells the sheer size of that creature.
Though Daisuke's smirk suggests he's not as surprised as Mizuki is, or rather, almost like he was expecting it.
The creature, coated by the black of the night itself. It is not until it bare it's vampiric fang that the two finally understand what they're looking at.
"A giant bat?!"