Katio ascended a seemingly endless, flat chasm, its sheer walls losing themselves in the abyss over and blow. Rocks, dislodged from unseen ledges, tumbled past him, forcing him to constantly steer and weave, narrowly avoiding crushing impacts. Then, a massive boulder hurtled down and caught him. His body plunged with the falling debris, but even as he tumbled, Kaito clawed and pushed against the invisible force of gravity, eventually wriggling free from the rock's underside. With a surge of renewed will, he resumed his flight.
His newly learned spell, Caelum Ascendere, glowed subtly around him, the source of his ethereal wings, which were merely cosmetic. His direction and speed relied entirely on his will alone. He was training, pushing himself to fully acclimate to this strange, exhilarating sensation of unassisted flight.
After some time, Kaito reached the top of the chasm, where Durandal greeted him.
"Congratulations," Durandal praised. "Do you want to dodge lightning, or perhaps engage in direct combat with a harpies swarm next?"
Kaito floated a moment before answering with a bit of exhaustion. "Let's do that next time. I feel that morning is approaching soon."
As if on cue, Kaito awoke with a wide yawn, the ink-like world fading from his mind. He pushed his blanket away, ready to start his day. However, his eyes snagged on something unexpected. Lying innocently on his chest, its silver blade glinting ominously mere inches from his neck, was the cursed katana.
"Wah!" Kaito yelped, a loud thud echoing as he tumbled from his bed and landed on the floor.
The closet door next to his bed slid open with a soft groan, revealing a still-sleepy Tamamo. Her pajama top had slipped, revealing one delicate shoulder. She yawned. "What is it, human? What's all the ruckuses?"
Kaito stammered, scrambling back to his feet, pointing a shaky finger at the blade on his bed. "The katana... it escaped from my inventory!"
Tamamo merely blinked, then casually replied, "It's just cursed." With that, she closed the closet door again, the soft click signaling her return to sleep.
Kaito was left alone, staring at the unsettling blade on his bed. " Durandal, what should I do with it?"
Durandal's voice echoed beside him. 'Why are you asking me? I'm not an expert in swords just because I am one.'
"Well..." Kaito began, trailing off.
"Try communicating with it," Durandal instructed. "It seems to possess sentience."
Kaito cautiously approached the katana and began whispering to it. "Alright... hello? Are you there? Can you hear me?"
Durandal facepalmed. "Not that way, Kaito. Grab it and communicate."
Kaito gripped the hilt of the katana. Instantly, the familiar world he'd just woken from dissolved, returning to the boundless expanse of his mental space. From the edge of the darkness, a figure materialized, slowly approaching him. As she drew closer, her form resolved into that of a traditional red and white shrine maiden.
He turned fully towards her. She was incredibly pale, almost bleached white, and her entire eyeballs were pools of pitch black. Her hair, equally black, held only the faintest trace of deep blue in its depths. Yet, despite these unsettling oddities, her features were undeniably beautiful, striking in their stark contrast.
The girl stared at him for a long moment. Then she moved directly in front of him, her face mere inches from his own. Kaito instinctively leaned back at the sudden intrusion of his personal space.
"Hello?" Kaito managed.
"So, you were the one who so brutishly claimed me," she stated with a soft voice.
Before Kaito could react, she reached out, her pale hands cupping his face, and leaned in even closer.
Kaito pushed back with his hands against her chest, a sudden wave of alarm washing over him. "What are you doing?"
"Granting you my blessing, of course," she stated nonchalantly. "With it, you can be immortal." She leaned in more forcefully, clearly intending to kiss him. Kaito stared into the swirling black abyss of her eyes, struggling to push her back as the image of Kenzo's horrifying transformation flashing through his mind.
"Thanks for the offer," Kaito quickly interjected, trying to sound firm despite his fluster, "but I have to decline."
Her dark gaze flickered yet she didn't stop after his words. "You defeated the fool I possessed, did you not? Unlike him, I shall grant you my blessing. Your desires are evidence, are they not?" She gestured pointedly with one hand to his own, which was still pressing against her modest breast as he tried to push her away.
"This is an accident!" Kaito blurted out.
In that brief moment of his fluster, she exerted surprising strength, pushing him backward onto the ground. "Oof," Kaito grunted as he landed. He lay on his back, staring up as she straddled him, pinning his wrists to the ground with her own surprisingly strong hands.
"Why struggle so?" she whispered, leaning down. Kaito could feel her soft breath on his face and a faint sweet scent of fresh sakura trees and cherry blossom petals filling his senses. He tried to budge, to pull his hands free, but despite every effort, her grip was unyielding.
Just as her face drew closer, a blinding pillar of golden light erupted a distance away from them. Durandal, in her fully voluptuous form, appeared, her expression absolutely seething. "Not so fast!" Durandal bellowed. "Kaito is my wielder!"
"Durandal, hel—" Kaito's desperate plea was abruptly cut short as the shrine maiden leaned down and pressed her lips against his in a passionate kiss. He felt the soft press of her mouth, then the intimate brush of her tongue against his.
When she finally pulled away, a thin string of saliva connecting their lips for a fleeting moment, she gazed into Kaito's dazed eyes. "I'm Shikabanehime no Miko," she introduced with a voice laced with possessiveness. "I look forward to being wielded by you, my new master."
She then cast a glance upwards at Durandal's still-seething, her smirk widening almost imperceptibly, before vanishing in a swirl of black and red petals.
"Kaito, you cheater!" Durandal cried out before she too disappeared.
Kaito was left lying on the ground, blushing slightly. His first kiss had been stolen, and in his own mental space, no less. He took a moment and quickly composed himself.
This was certainly a morning.
Snapping his eyes open, Kaito found himself back in his bedroom. In each hand, he now held a sword: Durandal in his right, and Shikabanehime no Miko in his left. Durandal, in her spectral form, was nowhere to be seen. Kaito felt a subtle discord in his internal engergy as an unknown power shifting against his existing one. Aside from that, nothing else seemed to have changed.
He opened his skill menu; a new passive, Shikabanehime's Blessing, was now listed. Kaito observed the beautiful katana in his left hand, then decided to shelve dealing with this peculiar situation for now. He dematerialized both Durandal and Shikabanehime no Miko and stumbled into the bathroom to brush his teeth.