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Your Body Is A Template Chapter 5: The Price of The Number One
Humming Holy Diver to myself as my walk goes unimpeded, besides having to step out of the way of the occasional carriage with some guards around it making it abundantly clear for all to get out of the way. I could make my displeasure known, but I don’t when they are simply making room on the road and they are not physically assaulting anyone.
Idly thinking about Senjumarus' supposed advice. While what he said had some merit, it comes off as far too risky. The Land of Lightning is a major nation among the five great ones. Unlike the series I had remembered from my childhood, the shinobi are still capable, but unlike that series, where it is universally skewed towards shinobi being the powerhouses, here it is not so much. Senjumaru had all but proved that with how much stronger ki was than chakra when it came to a contest of strength.
From what little I could glean from my experience in this world, there are at least three forces that exist. There are those like Senjumaru who use ki. Considering how much more powerful ki made me compared to chakra, it’s safe to say samurai likely can counter most shinobi besides someone like Might Guy or the Kage that battled Madara. I may not have finished Shippuden, but even I had an idea of what happened through osmosis. Though, with all the differences in this world, that may not be the case any longer.
My best guess is the samurai would speed blitz them so they can’t do their hand signs like I did to that Mist ninja. That’s if they even need to, considering that armor when struck by my sword back in the abandoned village shattered my blade and what Senjumaru did to those trees. So samurai were like the warriors in an rpg, and shinobi were the rogues.
One thing that does cross my mind is if samurai have access to any techniques like how ninjas have jutsu. Well, I hope I never have to find out.
I idly think about how well someone like Might Guy would do against Senjumaru…
Shaking my head of such thoughts when they then began to drift towards what… Itohime had managed to do. She had somehow managed to kill at least four other samurai before Senjumaru showed up, and she was the first to reveal that chakra wasn’t the only power people could wield in this world. Senjumaru further reinforced that.
He said what she did was chi. My best guess is she ambushed the samurai in some way and used those spirit strings she made. She couldn’t handle me in a face to face fight, though chakra was capable of countering her chi. But it took effort on my part by expending a decent amount to do so.
But learning this world was different from the one I saw through a TV screen, and it made me feel no end of stress. Things were bad because if this was like the show, at least I would have a good idea of what to expect courtesy of my prior knowledge.
I let it go, not worrying about what can’t be changed and focusing on my goal. A few of the people that I have come across gave me a look at the humming of Holy Diver as they started humming it along with me before going their ways along the roads that split off.
Snorting at the thought, I may end up bringing rock and roll with a hint of metal to these people. A chuckle escaped me at being the bringer of good music to these lands. I keep walking ahead, practicing becoming one with my surroundings. As soon as Senjumaru was left behind, most of my time was spent doing that. A vain hope I had was that my progress would go smoothly to the point it would be mastered within the first couple of hours.
In actuality, it wasn’t. Far from it, in fact. Even with Kojirou standing beside me, offering advice, I was only good enough to not get fully seen by a normal person at a decent distance. Which was somewhat useless. Not completely, but it would only be good in specific circumstances. It was faster than someone trying to figure things out and learn it all on their own.
At least it wasn’t a waste of time since each time someone was encountered along the path I was taking to get to my original goal of either the Land of Mountains or Vegetables, the closer I got to them before they took notice of me.
So I am at least improving on that. Walking further along the path before spotting two people dressed in simple monk robes someone would expect from a Buddhist monastery with clean-shaven heads with the sun shining off of them. Both looked at me with an intense scrutinizing look before glancing at one another and nodding their heads.
Uh oh. That can’t be good.
Before I could even use ki, one of the monks intercepted me, landing right where I had intended to turn and flee from them.
“Walk away.” I said calmly, hand resting on the one sword I kept out of storage.
My eyes went over both of them. One was older, judging from both his height and the lines that marred his face from stress and age. He was still young but had gone through something judging by the coiled tension in his posture and stance. The younger of the two looked hardened but still had a softness to him that the other lacked.
Not in a bad way, since it was the kind that would show mercy and compassion, whereas the other had lost what the younger one clung to.
“… We finally meet.” The older of the two spoke evenly.
His gaze bored into my own. “Do I know you?” I asked, unsure if I had ever met these two before. Neither of whom had the number two headband.
“No, but we know you.” He said back in his calm tone, though it had an undercurrent of anger contained within it. “All the death and destruction caused by you ends here.”
“Take it easy and let’s talk this out like-”
My attempt to end this peacefully died the instant mind's eye all but screamed at me. Ducking under something that I couldn’t see, hear, or even feel besides the sudden gust of wind that ruffled my hair and clothes.
The feeling got stronger with me turning around, seeing nothing while backpedaling. My heart hammered in my chest with mind's eye helping narrow down what direction and when the attack would come. The air was disturbed slightly, making it easier for me to pick up what it was.
But it wasn’t perfect. The invisible figure, initially from brushing against the air, made it seem like it was an arm with the hand formed into a fist, but there were gaps. The air just went through parts of it so it wasn’t completely solid.
The feeling I got from it… It was similar to what Itohime did. The arm lashed out, and this time I was ready. Trailing into my arm and down into my sword for a brief moment, ki empowered it. The fist shot forward, aimed for my throat. Like a high-caliber bullet, the sword was launched by my arm, and it was a blur so fast most people wouldn’t have seen what had happened. My eyes widened when the blade briefly met the edge of the invisible hand, with sparks forming before what resistance existed just vanished.
My sword went through the invisible appendage before, and with wide eyes, I stepped back in a burst of ki, avoiding the punch that cracked the air. Eyes narrowing at what the hell that was. But before I could even try to speak, another attack came, this time with two arms.
They flanked me from both sides with the single arm returning from before. I was getting corralled in, and any attempt to get out was thwarted, each limb moving fast enough to intercept my attempts to flee. Looking at the two monks, the younger of the two looked conflicted. He seemed unsure of what they were doing, while the older one, with his clothes ripped and torn like the other one, just glared hatefully at me.
Testing what I was dealing with using a one-handed sword strike with ki only in my arm had the weapon phase right through the limb like it was a ghost. Ki was used again against one that tried to grab my wrists, the sparks formed along the outer edge, but like before, it broke through but did nothing to stop the attack.
“If we are to avenge the others and our master and above all else end this madness, then you need to help me, Jikō.” The older monk said coldly. He was not going to give me any mercy if the scathing glare sent my way was any indication.
My calculating gaze widened when my foot stopped abruptly. It was then that I realized another limb had appeared. Between the two sets, one was weaker, whatever was felt through mind's eye showed that much. They moved slower and didn’t have near the power compared to the other ones.
The new addition to the onslaught I was dealing with had grabbed my ankle in a steel-tight grip. Even with ki empowering my foot and leg, I couldn’t get out of it. The thing dug into my leg, making me grit my teeth.
“Alright. You want a fight? You just got one.” I said now no longer wanting to flee. They wouldn’t let me, so they left me with no choice.
Chakra flowed into my leg and my sword; the blade swung towards one attack that was a hand poised to grab my throat. The blade met it, and unlike last time, it was capable of touching the hand. The blade met it, and instead of outright slicing it apart, sparks formed mid-air, and the limb was knocked back after great effort on my part. My foot slowly pried itself free from the grip before, with a surge of chakra exploding out from me, utilizing the failed wall-walking technique and knocking it away from me.
The power behind the blast was enough to launch me up into the air a meter. Spinning mid-air, the sword swung, knocking one limb away, the next almost managing to punch my solar plexus before it was parried, and the follow-up cut used the momentum from the strike to send it flying.
The last was met with a chakra-enhanced blade that used an idea I had been stewing on. No time to use it now, or I am about to see some stars. Chakra flowed into it before, like with my leg, the strike met the hand.
A deafening bang echoed out as the limb was sent flying back like a cannonball into the ground, gouging through it. I flew back before landing, channeling the momentum into a spin to bleed it off and slashing any strikes that came to the arms now, a staccato of fists that sparked and cracked the air from each clash with my sword.
My body turned in all directions and angles, blocking and redirecting the strikes, quickly realizing chakra wasn’t enough. Just like with ki, it was losing out in contests of power between the supernatural elements. It didn’t feel like it was because chakra was weak to their chi since that was the only thing I could think they were using unless a fourth form of energy, like the others, existed here. Oh, I hoped there wasn't, and I didn’t need anymore curveballs coming my way after life decided I needed the ones it sent me.
The other two limbs moved to try and grab my arms and leg while I was doing my level best to force them away. My chakra felt off, like it was lopsided. It felt stronger physically, but that wispy part of it felt lacking in comparison…
Ah shit. Don’t tell me using ki made it unbalanced?!
A fist finally broke past my defense with me covered in sweat, impacting my chest and making the air leave my left lung with red-hot pain following the loss of air. I wheezed and coughed, struggling to see when tears formed in my eyes. The other fists gave no respite, with several more impacting my blade.
I could feel the edge of the ethereal to these limbs, the traces of their chi in them feeling different yet familiar after my brief encounter with something of this nature from Itohime. The fists soon fell upon me, desperation overwhelmed me, and I contemplated trying to do something risky…
Fuck that. Using more chakra in my feet before exploding out, doing my best rocket ship impression. Both monks looked up wide-eyed before I landed away from their spectral menagerie of limbs and booked it.
“W-where do you think you're going?!” The older of the two yelled after me.
“To get the hell away from you two. Go beg for some coins or something, you bald bastard.” I yelled back and yelped when a massive fist the size of a pony slammed down from above.
“What the fuck?” It was sidestepped before I could feel the air currents shift around me.
More limbs formed, and I channeled ki in small bursts, moving just fast enough and predicting where most of them would strike or attempt to cut me off from running. The latter was avoided by me just using unorthodox routes and pathing that they couldn’t predict.
Just like when I get my ass beat in a videogame-- screw any rules, I make it up as I go along and cheese it to victory.
The various conjurations now shimmered in the air, whatever the monks had been doing to avoid them being visible to the naked eye now fading away with the air shifting like it was alive. The limbs slowly began to reveal themselves, and despite the distance I had gained between me and the monks, the limbs didn’t stop coming after me.
Despite using bursts of ki, they were never far behind me, and several of them went into the ground. It was like the Jaws shark found a way to swim through dirt and was hunting me down. Moving into a forest after pushing myself a little more before leaping up into various branches and lying atop a massive branch, I began to reduce my presence.
“No killing intent, no thoughts of violence, simply living in the moment. Good, keep it up, Andrew.” Kojirou said deep within me.
My presence slowly receded to where I felt calm. Calmer than I had in a long time. I thought of memories of me just relaxing, doing things around my home back on Earth. Stuff like swimming in the local swimming pool, playing some Minecraft, and just goofing around building stuff. Using Kojirou’s knowledge and memories to help ease the process, it became smoother than it had before and, dare I say, the best I have managed.
The subtle shift of the air, branches, and leaves moving to a breeze that wasn’t strong enough to make them move that much had me tense up, but my mind and presence remained calm. The once invisible limbs soon were visible, and they were not what I was expecting. Some were bronze in coloration, while others looked to be a darkened gold. The gold ones looked tarnished, with a brown forming around them with black specks appearing at some of the bigger patches. Yet they all had this transparency to them.
They moved through the forest, all fanning out, and I know deep in my bones there were more beneath the ground. The ones in the air causing subtle disturbances, I could figure out where they were. The ones down below were going to be more difficult.
But I had bigger problems. I looked towards my sheathed sword and pulled it slightly out. I took what time I had and began to attempt what I had done before with ki, except this time it was the other end of the spectrum. Ki was physical, the energy of life coming from flesh, blood, and bone. Born of determination and grows in strength with my body… At least that’s what I think!
Regardless of whether Kojirou’s whimsical way of thinking and talking is bleeding over, I focus on the other side. The one that must be the polar opposite to ki.
I focused and tried my best to harness the other half of the energy that made up chakra. It helped that Senjumaru had brought it out, and I had a better, more visible showing of it on numerous occasions.
Itohime, in comparison, only did her weird attack twice, and these guys' spells or whatever they wanted to call them were invisible until now. Guess they forwent subtlety since the trick was made known when it didn’t work when I could still detect their attacks.
My mind focused on the blade, feeling that same ethereal wispy sensation when separating the physical portion of chakra. Like two halves of velcro that at one point were bound together, it unraveled, and I took the portion that came undone while leaving the rest.
Agonizing minutes go by with me feeling lighter, not physically but mentally. Nothing had happened so far even with me focusing on my blade. Ki was no different than chakra. It was easier to draw out, just as it is to flex and grip with my hand. Was it because of the physical element from the energy?
Shaking my head of such distracting questions and focusing on the blade held in my hands. Imagining a blade forming not of steel, but from the mind and depths of one’s soul. Slowly a pale lavender began to take form over my blade that would easily be missed had I not intimately grown familiar with said weapon.
Something Kojirou had told him was a necessity, and his templates skills had proved useful in checking over each weapon. While no masterpiece like the sword that was given to him or the first three he found, it was well made.
The pale glow grew in intensity before his concentration faded when he heard the rustle of the grass. He looked over and saw what looked like a Buddha monk-styled statue's head floating through the area, eyes wide open, revealing a cosmic expanse within them.
It was mostly dark with a few stars and a moon or two within the dark orbs for eyes. It rotated around searching for something. The birds and various animals had gone quiet from the numerous spectral body parts moving through the forest.
Lying flatter against the tree branch before the two monks soon appeared. “… Kaikū, are you sure we should continue down this path? I am having doubts about what we are doing.” The younger monk said quietly. He appeared as if he were even questioning voicing his thoughts aloud.
The older monk paused before slowly turning to face his younger counterpart with a scowl. A few hand gestures of his hand waving in the air like he was praying, with some whispers, formed more body parts when a tainted golden glow formed around him.
The aura grew and expanded before a few chunks broke off from him and formed the various limbs that had been giving me so much trouble. These ones looked thicker and not as easy to see the background through.
“You're having doubts now? After what happened at the monastery, that bastard who came after Grand Master Reiun did what he did… Are you telling me you don’t think killing the one who holds the number one headband that has caused who knows how much death and destruction across the world and our plan is worth doing?”
The younger monk shrunk down the more the other one spoke, looking admonished. “He… Isn’t at fault, though. He gave us a chance to walk away. He tried to run from us. I think we have lost our way. Master Reiun wouldn’t have agreed with doing this.” He spoke to his companion, trying to reason with him.
Clinging to the branch, I silently prayed that he would listen to his friend. In doing so, I felt the surge of chi grow in my blade.
The fuck?!
Something that Kaikū seemed to detect turning in my direction before sending several limbs out. My concentration slipped and the chi was lost, and with it my means of attack but also what was giving me away. An arm lashed out where I had been, with me slipping away only a few meters up the branch covered in leaves.
The arm shot through the foliage, breaking and destroying anything in its path before it smashed into the bird's nest next to me that had a mother bird and her baby chicks under her. The destroyed nest with the remains of the birds rained down from above.
Jikō, the younger monk slowly crept forward, a look of pain and sorrow twisted onto his face. He shakily knelt down, cradling the mother bird, who was barely alive, struggling to breathe as it stared up into his eyes in fear. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes at the animal. It didn’t last long when the life it clung to slipped, and it passed on as all things do.
He cradled the animal in his lap, uncaring of the blood now smearing his clothes and legs, with tears falling to the ground. “I am so sorry, little ones.” He said in a whisper.
Kaikū had the decency to have some remorse show on his face before he hardened his heart when it vanished behind a veneer of anger and dark emotions.
“Enough Jikō. Yet another casualty from the ronin.” He said quietly, stewing and simmering in anger.
Jikō froze before he slowly looked up at his comrade. “He… He didn’t do this. You did.” He managed to get out of his tears, coming to a stop as he looked up at Kaikū with a serious expression.
“Because he would not face us! He is the source of all of this. Just as the one with the red cloud cloak came to our temple and killed our master, taking the headband that was forced upon him.” He leaned down and placed both of his hands on the younger monk's shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes.
“Think about it. If we don’t kill him and take that headband from him and destroy it, then even more destruction and death will happen, like it did to those animals.” He looked at the bird and its hatched offspring, or what was left of them.
Jikō looked like he wanted to say something more but held back. He slowly nodded before looking once more down at the dead bird before he gently laid it on the ground. The two soon remained together near me unknowingly. While concentrating on drawing out my chi, I was dwelling on what was said.
Red cloud cloak… The Akatsuki. Of course those mercenary assholes would be on the hunt for me. I may not have finished Naruto, but I do remember the Akatsuki organization, a group of high-ranking shinobi from various hidden villages that came together, forming the organization.
Except for what little of the members I am familiar with, both from the few I had seen in the anime and the rest from various forums and media depicting and talking about them, it was likely irrelevant. If this world was already different because of the existence of super samurai using Dragon Ball ki bullshit, now monks are using yet another form of energy that acts like mages or, in the case of the ones I was dealing with-- punch wizards.
It slowly became easier with the chi flowing out into my blade, and the monks below couldn’t sense it, making me rather thankful for that. Unlike with ki or chakra, chi felt far more fluid, gaseous even. It was water untapped, now free to move as far as it wanted to. It moved when I commanded it far more easily, but much like with ki or chakra, the caveat was I had to associate it with the sword.
If I couldn’t do that, then it would be almost impossible to get it to do what I wanted it to. The pale lavender flowed over the blade, with me ignoring any leaves idly brushing against me and any insects that decided to crawl over me… until I felt eight different points close to one another pressing onto my skin.
Eyes as large as saucers looked over at the hellspawn that had decided to crawl onto me. My head snapped towards it, and we looked at one another for a few seconds before I slammed my hand down onto my other arm, making the air crack like thunder.
The branch groaned under me, and in that moment, I knew I had done goofed. The limb, tearing and breaking apart, fell down below, with both monks looking up. The younger of the two just watched, eyes wide in shock, and the older quickly moved aside.
Leaping away from the limb, I looked down at the kid. "Move, you idiot!” I yelled at him, snapping him out of it as he moved aside, avoiding the massive branch dragging several others down with it. Landing on another branch and dodging the various ghostly limbs that snapped through the trees and foliage, crushing and breaking anything that got in their way.
Oddly enough, it was the golden limbs coming for me. The bronze ones instead remained where they were. Gritting my teeth, I pulled my sword out, now coated in chi, before I slashed out, and unlike my ki-based attacks and much better than chakra, it made contact and cut the grasping hand in half.
The two halves fell past me before shattering into specks of light. More limbs came much faster, yet all were sliced apart. Fingers were severed, and hands were cut off from arms and turned to ribbons. Anything that moves towards me is cut to shreds. Another arm came for me, and a slash sent up sparks, but the limb just had a minor cut to it.
More appeared, and I leaped to various branches that would make an Olympic gymnast jealous. All the while my sword lashed out, and each time the cuts got deeper and faced less resistance. My control over the chi was improving, making the edge of the energy coating my blade that much sharper. Whether I was mid-air, leaping from a branch, no matter what, the limbs just kept coming.
“I heard what you were discussing. Killing me won’t solve anything.” I said, in between slicing more of the limbs apart with the thicker ones now, no better than the ones at the beginning, as they all got cut into pieces before fading away.
“You're lying.” The older one said, looking more frustrated and angry while he remained where he was drenched in sweat. “You’ll say whatever you need to to go on living.”
“Hate to break it to you,” I grunted, slicing clean through five arms in one cut before dropping down and skewering another that came up from the ground when I had been expecting it to. “But you kill me, the headband would be stuck with you, and you wouldn't get the reward for killing me. You would be in the same situation as me, anyone coming for your head just for the chance of getting a wish.”
Both monks paused at that. Jikō looked thoughtful, taking what had been said at face value. Kaikū, in comparison, just narrowed his eyes, his face darkening with it scrunching up in distaste.
Kaikū broke the calm silence that had taken over the area. “It doesn’t matter. We stick to the plan. One of us gets your headband, then the other gets the number two, and then we make things right.”
“What?” I asked him like I just didn’t hear the insanity spewing from his mouth. He couldn’t honestly think he and the younger monk would last long enough to get a number two when they would be fighting for their lives.
“No! This isn’t the way.” Kaikū’s head snapped towards his younger companion, snarling.
“This is the plan we agreed on.” He emphasized this by stomping his foot into the ground, accidentally crushing a dead squirrel's head into the ground. Something that made Jikō frown deeply and Kaikū smile this time, showing no remorse.
“No, this is the plan you came up with when we should have been grieving for our fallen brothers and master and carrying on master's wishes.” The young man got more heated the more he talked.
“What wishes? He never got a chance to tell us what to do beyond to flee.”
“It’s called knowing our master and how he lived his life. He would have wanted us to not do what we are now causing the same thing that happened to us to others.” The younger monk was getting louder and more animated, not helped by all the dead animals and ravaged landscape that was once a beautiful part of nature.
The other monk fell silent, a vein bulging on his temple as he glared down at his younger companion. I remained tense but stayed rooted where I had been watching this unfold, hoping I didn’t have to fight. The thought of doing a sneak attack came up quite a bit more.
The only issue was Kojirou wasn’t keen on me doing something like that and would make life rather difficult… How the hell a guy like him who just existed in my mind would manage to do that is beyond me, but I wasn’t about to test my luck and find out. But if it came down to it… We will see what I do when that time comes. If it ever does.
“Then you are my enemy as well.” Kaikū looked at him now as he did me. Just another enemy. The younger monk's eyes widened when a fist that was far darker than the golden limbs that had been used by the older monk up until now attempted to grab his throat.
Holding my blade out towards the limb without hesitation, any notion of using it to kill Kaikū was tossed aside. The glow of my blade intensified before Kojirou’s reverence for the sword and only the sword bled over into me. The glowing edge soon grew and shifted, becoming malleable. Following my will, it extended a spiritual edge not unlike that of a fang from a serpent.
The lavender spiritual energy raced forward, spearing the blackened limb that had taloned fingers ready to rip the young monk's throat out. Both paused, realizing what had just happened. In that fraction of a second they both moved, and I followed up with a strike.
My arm outstretched, I pulled the handle to the side, and the extended projection did as bid. Kaikū swiftly backed away, not as fast as the mist shinobi and especially not like Senjumaru would have done. Physically, he may as well be just above a normal person.
What saved the man was the upper torso of what I could only describe as half of the Buddhist monk mixed with a Hindu demon, formed with its arms braced. The glowing blade took a moment too long to dig into the arm of the thing, but it was enough to buy the man time to get further away.
While the blade was halfway sunk into the thing's arm, it didn’t stay idle. Its head snapped towards me before the impaled arm grasped my chi blade, holding it tightly before floating towards me. It moved faster than I could hope to kill it, so I let go of the chi, and the glowing lavender construct faded away, the energy sustaining it gone. Using ki in my feet, I burst towards the monk that was dead set on killing me.
I didn’t think about the moral implications of what I was about to do, it was either me and the younger monk or him… and I chose the obvious choice. My blade almost took his head off had the man not formed a pair of arms the size of trees that managed to intercept me in time. The gust of wind knocked Kaikū off his feet and slammed his back into a tree.
One arm grabbed my legs, the other my sword arm. Teeth grit together, pushing as much ki I could into my limbs without leaving me empty in the tank. They could budge a little, but it was ultimately futile. Despite all my desperation and rage, I was a rat trapped in his grip.
He coughed and wiped his mouth before he got back up from the tree. “A surprise to be sure. Not every day I see a ronin using chi, of all things. Time to end this.” He said with finality.
My struggles grew more frantic when, after some hand gestures that looked more like exaggerated kung fu moves with both arms smoothly transitioning towards me, a spectral, darkened arm formed over his shoulder, and unlike the other halfway gold and jagged darkness, this one was purely darkness with spikes adorning the elbow, and the fingers ended in jagged knives.
With a simple thrust, the arm shot forward. Aimed right for my heart, my eyes widened. I refused to look away, not out of some pride of looking like a coward if I closed my eyes but out of some vain hope that I could survive this.
Just when it was mere feet from me, several broken arms slammed into it, shattering themselves on impact with the sound of a gong ringing out across the area. Standing tall with his hands in prayer gestures, he went through several more before clapping his hands together. The ephemeral forms were not as lustrous as the golden ones his older former friend used to make before his fall to the dark side or whatever was happening to him.
Jikō, instead of attacking Kaikū like both of us expected, his summoned arms raced towards the ones keeping me in place.
“No! What are you doing?!”
“What I should have done the instant we fled the monastery. The right thing.”
The arms couldn’t destroy the conjured limbs, the older of the two of them was by far the better user of their punch wizard magic. But that didn’t mean Jikō’s attacks couldn’t help me get out. The limbs grabbed ahold of the fingers and slowly pried them back.
“You damn traitor!” Kaikū snarled, a malevolent aura wrapping around him.
The grip slackened just enough for my limbs to slide right out before moving towards the monk's side. “Thanks.” That was all I could say, focusing on the monk who seemed to be mentally unraveling as each second ticked by.
The glare he directed towards us was filled with such hate. “Then you’ll die with him, I will right the wrongs of this world myself.”
He didn’t give us any time to coordinate or make a plan before his body went rigid and a great black mass took shape and quickly formed into a two and a half meter tall dark black and purple figure with six arms. Its face was an angry grimace with pronounced teeth that jutted out like a crocodile's.
“… You have fallen so low because of the tragedy. I am sorry.” The young man bowed his head with a pained expression on his face.
Done taking any chances, the instant the massive towering figure was poised to rip the young monk who summoned more limbs apart, I acted. The sword was held at the ready with the tip aimed at the man who was ready to kill a former friend and comrade.
The pale lavender intensified before it shot out. Flying faster than a bullet, the energy projection rammed right into his bare forehead and out the back of his head, impacting a tree.
“Grk.” That was all he managed to get out as his eyes stared forward, not realizing he was dead until they finally dulled and grew listless when his arms fell to his sides. A puppet with its strings cut, he fell to the ground with a spray of blood accompanying him.
The monstrous creature he had made mid-stride began to fade, but not fast enough. The young monk braced himself but instead stared wide-eyed when I moved past the creature, stepping on the ground lightly before it fell apart along every joint on its body before fading to blackened dust.
The two of us stared at one another for a long moment. “So… You give up?” I asked.
Guilt filled my heart when the realization hit me that I killed someone. He tried to kill me and his own companion. It was justified self-defense. Yet I did my best to fight the tremor that threatened to erupt from my hands. Not now. Focus on the possible enemy. I can break down when I get away.
“I yield. I beg for your forgiveness for even being a part of all this.” He went sieza before me, bowing deeply. The limbs he had summoned faded away like everything else.
I opened and closed my mouth before finding my words and fighting to not look at the body. “Good. I am going to leave now.”
“I will not stop you nor come after you. I must bury my friend and the many animals that had died from this conflict.” He said, rising up with tears falling in rivers down his face.
I paused at that. “You're really going to give him a burial? After he just tried to kill you.”
He didn’t. He went over the dead man’s body and rolled him over, closing his eyes. “Our temple and master spoke of forgiveness and letting go of transgressions of the past. I… Feel conflicted, but I wish to do as my master would have wanted of me. It helps that I know why Kaikū became the way he did after witnessing the fall of our temple.”
“The person who came after your master's headband… You said they wore a cloak adorned with red clouds?”
“Yes. They… the other monks tried to fight him, but they all perished. We believe in forgiveness as much as we do in defending oneself. But that figure… He killed our master and took his body with him alongside the headband. May I have your name?”
I blinked at the change of subject. “Y-yeah, it’s Kojirou Sasaki.”
The monk resumed caring for his fallen friend's body with his back turned to me. “I will pray that you can overcome the trials that await Kojirou. One last question.”
I let out a sigh before nodding towards him, then admonishing myself that he couldn’t see me. “Yeah, but make it fast, I have to get out of here.”
“Will this madness that has claimed everyone’s sanity continue forever over these headbands?”
My expression hardened with a resolve boiling up and nearly dissolving the guilt that had festered in me at the life I took. “No. If I can survive with this thing for some time, then it will end.” The headband whipped out in the gentle breeze before I left the young monk to mourn all that he had known and loved gone from the world through no fault of his own.
Turning around, looking to the far north, and seeing the mountains in the distance with what few clouds there were not obscuring them at this distance. Shaking my head at the fact I was going to heed Senjumarus’ advice after encountering those two monks. Ignoring the pang of guilt and instead focusing on my survival.
If those two could randomly find me, then the ones wearing the number two headbands wouldn’t be far behind. They may even have a good idea of where I may try to run to. So going for the option that wouldn’t be a good place to go might be the right call in the end.
With the reveal of the monks I felt it was best to show the three types of energy early on. Ki is more physical and makes the samurai absurdly strong and fast, with them being capable of some interesting abilities once they use them at higher ranks.
Chakra for shinobi is a mix as we know it of ki and chi, the physical and spiritual energies. It doesn’t have an advantage over ki and any attack they would use would slide right off of them. Jutsu wouldn’t do much of anything unless you put a lot into the attack and genjutsu may as well be pointless. Chakra does have an advantage against chi in that it can interact with it because of the spiritual element to it. It wouldn’t necessarily over power it but as a sneaky ninja you wouldn’t be overpowering anything.
Monks are the worlds equivalent to mages, using chi which is a hard counter against ki. Shinobi can beat them by just stealth attacking them, and with chakra capable of resisting their attacks it give them an edge in handling them.
But like with any series of game with a weapons triangle, just because one has an advantage over the other doesn’t mean your guaranteed to win.
