I packed up my bag of goodies to eat, strapped my katana, and wore my family haori of white with black branches, but it had black outlined triangles now too as I wanted to fullfil my sensei's wish to succeed him.
Before leaving the next morning, I decided to check how much was Akira trained. So at night I called out for Akira. And I removed my clothes and put some cushioned teeths I made during the afternoon out of dry wood to prevent injuries from Akira's teeths.
I gestured him to come at me thinking I am a demon. He crouched and lunged at me with a very quick leap and clawed me, hit on me from his head and body multiple times, which would be lethal for anyone else.
He then switched his stance to a similiar one to Thunder Breathing and managed to attack me from all directions.
Jigoro sama did train him well.
I gestured him to hit at a dummy and boy it was shattered as it was made of wood.
I was impressed so I gave him a treat and patted him for a good job.
I visited the village next morning. The wisteria trees looked beautiful as it covered the village was covered by it, the colonies looking more beautiful with the flowers of blue, red , yellow and whites decorating it furthermore along with the custom designs on the houses as per the inhabitants wishes.
The sound of urban machines that perfectly blend in with the rural peaceful atmosphere.
I said goodbye to the elders and treated the youth council that I made, before advising them on how to manage matters in the village and then left to say a final goodbye to jigoro sama.
"Raijin, you're like my son, and I know there would be more students willing to learn and will be close to me too, but no one would be more precious than you. Ever. Rai, write to this old man will you?"
" Of course Sensei, how can I forget my grumpy cute old man?"
I said before hugging him when he burst to tears. I bowed to him for a final time before taking Akira with me and leaving for the location of the Final Selection.
I met quite a few aspiring slayers before reaching the selection area.
" May lord forgive this poor soul, and may you receive peace ." Said a bald teen who was almost a year lesser than me to the body of a frog which was accidentally tramped on by a passing cart.
" Hey there! I'm Raijin Kaminari, nice to meet you, are you heading for the final selection?"
"Good evening Raijin, yes I'm heading there, did the staff expose me? Haha"
" Yes it did, as though a monk, why would you carry a metal staff?"
" Well let's get on, we can talk on the way raijin, I'm Yasuko Kazuko btw"
On the way I found that he was a child monk, sold by his family, but a shrine took him up. The shrine was nearly massacred but the sunshine saved them, since then Yasuko decided to become a slayer. He learnt Wind Breathing by a shaolin monk from the nearby shrine and decided to take the slayer test.
"Alright Raijin, let's meet after the selection if we survive-"
I was stunned by how straightforward he was.
The curators of the selection came up and explained. We had to survive 7 nights on the mountain and reach the peak by dawn.
As soon as the curators left, we left from our spots and reached inside the mountain. I decided to camp nearby the peak, and kill any demons if I see. I headed up, and it was pretty easy for me to do so. And so was for Akira to follow me.
I finally picked up a spot and wandered to see if anyone needed help. I saw Yasuko and helped him kill a demon and asked him if he needed help, but he said he was fine. I helped quite a few kids who were just here without much training but just for revenge and adviced them to be cautious.
I returned to my spot and saw a girl patting Akira, which was unusual as Akira wasn't friendly except with ppl he likes and he was quite huge to be misunderstood .
"Excuse me miss!?" I said to the woman nearing her.
She wore a haori and kimono. The haori looked very much like the starry night.
She turned and looked at me.
She had her head neatly tied in a ponytail, like I had, but except mine was straight and hers were slightly wavy. She had dark-brown cat like eyes, a thin bridged nose, a toned physique which also showed that her face was perfectly healthy except a few facial scars but she looked beautiful nevertheless and especially those lip-
"Uhm uhm?"
" Umm im sorry- I mean umm im you Kaminari - what's your Raijin nam- "
" Haha, the name's Kaidi Tsugukini"
"TSUGU- what? You're his descendant?"
" Yes I am, that's quite rare, you know him,I'm Michikatsu's else commonly known as Kokushibo's descendant."
"Oh, you wanna use the same strategy? Camp and wait?"
"Yes"
"Wanna join? " " Sure"
The night passed and the morning was quick to come, she said that she would guard and I could sleep, but I still kept my senses up as a precaution.
A few demons did come, but she used her breathing "Moondust Breathing" to easily make them bite the dust. She seemed to have a caution sense kind of ability that told her if any mishappen were to occur.
The next morning I woke up to see her freshen up, by a river nearby.
I asked if we should gather some wood for lunch.
We removed our haoris and loosened our kimono as we proceeded to cut down wood.
While doing so, she told me that she was a direct descendant of Kokushibo, and wanted to end him for good and decided to learn a derivative of Moon breathing used by Kokushibo from her father.
During lunch I managed to spear out fishes using a wooden spare spear. She washed her face with the flowing river and we decided to take a bath.
At our spot, while I was roasting the fishes I saw her arriving , with the sunlight falling on her face, and her eyes looking ever brown.
Akira licked me and I quickly looked away, so that she won't notice my staring.
6 nights went smoothly, with us bonding and we met Yasuko too. I asked him a personal question which Kaidi shouldn't hear, so I asked her to close her ears for a moment.
( If he was practicing celibacy like a monk or not as I was curious, and he did , so ya.)
On the 7th night, before it was late night,
Kaidi told me " My breathing technique makes my body go through extreme conditions to learn it. During childhood, to cope with the Moondust , I decided to try the berries that my father ate , but I got a reaction to it and that is the reason why I got facial scars. The scars were more severe after the one time I used Moondust breathing by using my pocket knife, and it heavily backfired and caused cuts on my face. People do grow quite distant as soon as they see my face but you didn't, so thank you Rai"
" Well let me tell you something Kai-" before I could continue, few demons appeared around us, with bulkier bodies.
Moondust Breathing: Scatter
Kaidi went at a singular quick slash at the demons , which divided to 5 slashes towards all of them and clearly cut off their heads.
As she turned towards me, before she could even decipher what I was going to do, I appeared infront of her, and swiftly slashed off the head of the demon coming at her back as I held her and brought her to the side by her arm.
" Well, let me tell you this Kaidi, if I were to choose from the heavens and the glance of your face, I would surely and always choose you only. I don't care about what they say, but you, even though a bit cruel, of how you eat and kill, are very beautiful from your face and your heart."
As a demon lunged at us from the tree, Akira reacted and bit it's head off. Akira had a few bits of wisteria in his food everyday as I had requested jigoro san to do and had now he had not only adapted and grown stronger, but his gums had started secreting its own poison against demons.
The demon that had its head bit off, couldn't regenerate it.
Kaidi and I were still in a moment then Akira barked, which made us blush and separate.
Akira looked in a very judgemental way at us.
Soon the sun started to rise and we packed up and started to leave. Akira walked infront of us, still in its protective mood when Kaidi whispered to me.
" You're not less too yk, those abs could turn me to a heinous criminal too" and boy I blushed for the first time ever.
We reached the peak and I saw Yasuko and he was perfectly fine except that on the last night he was slashed at his arm, but it was nothing for him.
6 of us survived and the curators arrived congratulated us on passing the final selection. After which we were assigned crows for messages, like jigoro san also has one too.
Except that Yasuko got a dove?! Is he that pure?
We were then asked to choose our nichirin ores , for which , I rubbed my hands and touched the table, the far end ore had a bluish white tinge and it got charged after my touch so I chose that.
Kaidi chose hers, and we promised we would stay in contact. And hope that we see each other again, saying that she hugged me and left for her home.
I patted my crow and Akira, because someone was jealous and I head back to Mount Kawanori too.