A WEEK OF TRAINING WENT BY. Yukan and Ite put their blood, sweat, and tears into their training, knowing that they may be killed by most threats if they didn’t. Kashikoi’s combat training was often built around set intervals where attacks would be dealt with high intensity followed by resting periods. Gradually, these resting periods grew shorter and the attack periods grew longer. By this point, Yukan, Ite, and Kadaina were able to attack at full power for nearly a minute and twenty seconds without pause. Their current cycle was built with a forty second break and was meant to be done five times for a total of ten minutes.

Even though all three were capable of attacking at full power, however, Kadaina opted not to do so, conserving it while munching on an apple, half-attentive to the task at hand. Even less so, however, was Kashikoi, the target of these exercises. He was fully capable of blocking nearly all of his pupils’ attacks using magic channeled through a single finger. The amount of power a single digit can channel as opposed to the entire body, or even one limb for that matter, is greatly reduced, requiring an immense potency to block such an onslaught with this much effectiveness. Once the ten minutes were over, Ite and Yukan collapsed from exhaustion while Kadaina had only been slightly winded.

“Great work, you two,” Kashikoi began, turning to Ite and Yukan. “I’m impressed by your progress. You have both grown much stronger since we first met. As for you, Kadaina, you’re getting lazy again. You didn’t even try this time.”

“I tried!” Kadaina protested. “I was just preserving my stamina!”

“You do realize that’s the point of this training, right?” his mentor continued. “You’re supposed to use as much energy as possible. You might actually see some improvement if you followed the regimen.”

“What are you talking about?!” Yukan groaned. “I’ve been following it to a T and I haven’t improved one bit! Ite’s over here hitting moving targets blindfolded and I only just got around to knowing how to use my sword!”

In a fit of rage, Yukan sliced one of the training targets clean in half, the force needed to complete the swing now seeming to be nothing. It had cut through the target just as a chainsaw would a single twig. He stormed out of the room after laying the greatsword on his shoulder.

“He doesn’t see it, does he?” Ite asked her instructor.

“Apparently not,” Kashikoi answered, gazing down at a fresh slice across his palm “but one day, he will see how far he’s come along.” He began to heal the wound that Yukan had inflicted.

“Don’t worry,” Kadaina interjected, tossing an apple in his hand as if it were a toy ball, “I got this.”

The young mage ran after Yukan with a grin as Kashikoi turned once more to Ite.

“I need to show you something, Ite,” spoke Kashikoi. “It’s important, if you wouldn’t mind following me.”

The two of them began in the direction opposite of Kadaina. After a brief walk, Kashikoi opened up a cellar door.

“It is highly likely that me harboring you two has made me a target as well,” the mage began. “I would not doubt that Kunshu’s forces may emerge some time soon to try to finish what they started that night. If such a time were to come, this is your way out of danger.”

Kashikoi and Ite went into the cellar. It was decrepit, its walls covered in cobwebs and the floor above it supported by thin wooden beams, just strong enough to sustain at most eight people. Not only that, but the floor was very high as well, requiring Kashikoi and Ite to effectively crouch to make their way through. At the other end, there was an archway, just tall enough for somebody to slip through, but pitch black.

“So, that’ll lead us out of the house?” Ite asked.

“Precisely,” Kashikoi replied. “Mind your step, though. I never quite got around to making any of the alternate paths safe to follow.”

“Got it,” Ite responded. “Can we head back up now?”

“Of course.”

The two of them got back out of the cellar, with Kashikoi heading off toward Kadaina.

While Ite and Kashikoi were in the cellar, Kadaina had caught up with Yukan, but kept a good distance away to avoid being detected.

“Heads up, thick skull!” Kadaina yelled as he chucked the apple at Yukan’s head. He reacted almost instantly, slicing the apple in two before it could hit him.

“What the hell was that for?!” Yukan yelled. “Do you guys just throw fruit at people whenever you feel like it?”

“You may see fruit,” began the youngest in the household, “but I see improvement. You couldn’t even dodge a punch last week, but your reactions and instincts have sharpened greatly.”

“That was dumb luck,” Yukan muttered before Kadaina tossed a pear at him. Yukan sliced it once again, showing the same accuracy and reflex as before.

“Could you stop that?!” he groaned.

“I will if…”

“If what? If you run out of fruit in your little bowl?!”

“If you play one game of chess with me.”

“But I need to train more to defend myself.”

“Training will teach many lessons, but there are some you need to learn elsewhere.”

“Fine,” Yukan relented. “One game. Just so you don’t move onto watermelons.”

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The two boys walked over to a chessboard. The tiles were worn and the black pieces seemed to have faded somewhat. The other pieces had been subject to wear and tear as well, with the knight on the white side being the worst offender, seemingly worn down to the pine wood it was carved out of. Yukan sat at the end with the white pieces while Kadaina sat at the opposite end with the black pieces.

“Since you’re playing white, you get to go first,” the younger of the two declared.

“What’s the point of this?” Yukan asked. Although he knew how to play chess, he never saw any valuable lessons coming from it.

“Chess forces you to plan ahead,” Kadaina began. “Not only that, but you need to keep watch over every single piece to prevent any openings and stop yourself from jumping at an easy capture, unaware that you may jeopardize yourself by doing so. Most importantly, we learn from this that, no matter how bleak the current situation, you can always bounce back so long as you’re not in checkmate. This applies to real combat as well. If you go in with no plan, then you’re certain to die against a more strategic foe.”

“Kadaina, I think-”

Yukan’s statement was interrupted by a loud banging at the door. Kashikoi put his hand over Yukan’s mouth before raising a finger to his own lips.

“Kadaina,” Kashikoi said in a low voice, “show Yukan to the cellar. I’ll deal with whatever is here.”

Kadaina and Yukan began toward the cellar before Kashikoi grabbed the latter’s collar.

“Once you’re in there,” he began, “take an immediate right and brace yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yukan asked in a whispered yell.

“You’ll see,” his mentor replied. “Now go.”

When the two boys reached the cellar, they saw that Ite had already found it and found her position there.

“Mr. Masuta will handle this,” Kadaina assured them. “We just need to be as quiet as a dead knight.” The other two students of Kashikoi nodded in compliance. The three of them gazed through the floorboards of Kashikoi’s house as their mentor answered the door.

“How can I help you fine gentlemen?” Kashikoi said as a greeting to the figures at the doorway. As Yukan saw the figure he was talking to, his eyebrows lowered, his teeth and fist clenched. Kadaina barely managed to grab onto Yukan’s right arm to keep him from drawing his greatsword and only just managed to clasp his hand over Yukan’s mouth to keep him from protesting.

“Cut the crap, Kashikoi,” Kunshu growled as he walked into the house. “We know you’re hiding the trash your precious pupil picked up last week.” Shirei followed his emperor into the house, as well as a few Aotoshi soldiers bearing axes, who flooded into the room like a flock of vultures, collecting above their next feast.

“Trash?” Kashikoi scoffed, wearing a slight grin. “Was he picking up you and your subordinates?”

“How dare you speak-” Shirei began before Kunshu directed him to stop speaking. The emperor of Aotoshi continued.

“Your house could use a bit of a clean, Kashikoi,” he started as he walked further into the house, eventually standing on the cellar entrance. “Perhaps it would jog your memory. Maybe you’ll remember the plebeians you’re housing.”

“If you are looking for plebeians,” Kashikoi retorted, “I’m speaking to five of them right now.”

“Don’t make me slice your throat and feed it to the brats you’re harboring. Where are they?!”

“Temper, temper,” the eldest mage continued, “is this any way for a guest to treat the master of the house? If you’re so certain that I’m housing them, then why would I tell you where they are?”

“I guess we’re doing this the hard way!” Kunshu yelled as he charged at Kashikoi, unsheathing the Alpha Blade as he approached. Kashikoi caught sight of the attack and created a magical force to protect him, causing the Alpha Blade to be reflected toward a different direction. Kunshu tried once more to attack, managing to knick Kashikoi’s flank slightly, but the mage did not let this deter him.

He snapped his fingers, a spark flying out as a ball of flame emerged in his palm. He threw the mote toward Kunshu and the fleet, hitting Shirei and seriously damaging two of the soldiers. Shirei pushed through, escorting the injured out of the house and gesturing outward, as if calling for backup. Where the two injured soldiers once stood, four healthy men had replaced them, the amount of people in the room dangerously approaching capacity.

The first guard tried to strike at Kashikoi with his ax, but was unsuccessful and Kashikoi kicked him to the side. Kunshu took advantage of this opening and lunged once more at Kashikoi, but trapped the Alpha Blade in one of the floorboards. Pulling it out with all of his force, he split the floorboard open, causing it to collapse inward. Yukan and Kadaina narrowly avoided being crushed by the falling board and having their location revealed to the Aotoshi troops.

The upward slash hit Kashikoi with a great force, sending him into a nearby wall. The second strike was not nearly as impactful, with Kashikoi using Kunshu’s momentum against him to lift him upward and throw him partway through the wall. Shirei, seeing his emperor in danger, charged at Kashikoi and sliced his back with a claymore. Kashikoi responded by tossing Shirei over his shoulder, hoisting him up with little struggle and sending a crackle of lightning toward the both of them.

Kunshu used the opening created by Shirei to flank Kashikoi, which the mage swiftly dodged. Unfortunately, this attack was a lighter attack that Kashikoi would be tricked into blocking with full force instead of the primary attack, stabbing through his side, before taking a strike through the other side.

Kashikoi had hunched himself over, wiping the blood from his mouth. He had managed to regain some form of composure as he faced Kunshu.

“Get out of here!” Kashikoi yelled out.

“Why should I?” Kunshu scoffed. “Why shouldn’t I get rid of you now so you can’t stop me later?”

Kashikoi threw a blast of fire toward Kunshu, which the emperor dodged before stabbing through the mage’s heart, impaling him and lifting his corpse to the sky as it clung onto the blade.

“Master! No!” Kadaina cried out, seeing the life leave Kashikoi Masuta’s eyes. Yukan and Ite grabbed Kadaina by the arms and began escorting him toward the exit in the cellar.

“Start hacking away!” Shirei commanded, hearing Kadaina’s outcry. “They’re under the floorboards!”

The four surviving guards took their axes and began thrashing the wooden beams that made up the floor of the room. Just as Yukan, Ite, and Kadaina got through the door, the floor above them caved in, kicking up sawdust and dried dirt.

The three of them tried to recollect themselves afterward. Yukan and Ite covered their mouths by pulling up their shirts to keep the dust from getting in, while Kadaina covered his with the sleeve of his cloak.

“They’re cornered,” Kunshu began, seeing the collapsed floor and the arc. “Men, stay posted in this room. If they try to go back out, show them no mercy.”

“And what if they stay?” one of the guards asked his emperor.

“Then they will either suffocate or starve,” he replied. “Either way, we will be rid of these pests.”

Hearing this, the three began to fear being trapped. That was until Yukan remembered what Kashikoi had told him to do. Without a second thought, he faced the rightmost wall in the pitch black of the tunnel and lunged forward. Sure enough, there was no wall and he began to plummet. Yukan heard Ite cry out for him as he fell further into the abyss before him.