Awoken in the morning, Ren felt a difference in his hands. He was already a bit numb to pain due to the torture he felt at the beginning of his existence in this new world, so it never hurt him to the point beyond slight discomfort, and with the little bit of ointment, it all returned to the point that he stopped even paying any mind to it.

He raised to a sitting position and checked out the blisters. Most of them were gone.

‘Your body is really remarkable,’ he heard in his mind, which prompted him to look around, and he quickly noticed Tsukiko approaching. She sat on the ground right next to his bedding and began licking her paws. Her tail moved around as if it had its own mind.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You heal so fast. You adapt. Then there is also your pain threshold. It’s not normal,’ she pointed out.

‘Maybe… Living in this body it’s hard to say. I was a wimp in my past life, so everything in this new flesh is different for me. Maybe that’s why I didn’t fully notice it,’ he shrugged his shoulders.

‘Maybe,’ she agreed. ‘Now go eat, and vacate my sleeping spot,’ she insisted. ‘You have a hard conversation with Satoru awaiting for you.’

‘Yeah,’ he acknowledged getting up, and making enough room for her to curl into a ball on the blanket.

The worry about the old man’s reaction to the information he was about to pass began growing within him with each step he took toward the dining room. Inside it morphed into a weird sensation in his stomach, but fortunately, it all vanished when he sat by the table, joining Satoru and Ayako.

"Your hands look much better. This was some great ointment,” the old man pointed out. “You could return to training even today.”

“I won't be going to train today or tomorrow,” Ren confessed.

Satoru’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead.

“I have a plan. I think it’s worth trying… I want to undergo the trial of strength,” Ren finally confessed.

The chopsticks in the hands of the old man, along with the cluster of cooked rice grain he was picking with them, fell to the table.

“Did Hinata hurt you in the head? This is insanity! You can’t go! You will die!” Satoru snapped.

His eyes wandered to his wife, looking for support, but she refrained from saying anything.

“I have a plan,” Ren repeated. “If it won't work, I’ll give up and run to safety. There is some risk, but not that much.”

“Not that much?” The old man almost burst into laughter. “Not that much?!” He repeated yelling. “Did Hiroshi mess something up with your head? There are plenty of risks. Too much of it. As soon as this monstrosity grabs you, you are done!”

“I want to try,” he didn’t back down.

This prompted Satoru to shake his head before he, ostentatiously, left the dining room. As a matter of fact, he left the house as well.

Ren watched him carefully, but as he lost sight of the old man, his gaze switched to the wife, who knelt silently by the table eating as if nothing happened, but she caved in under the pressure of his glare.

"My husband is right, this is dangerous, but the decision is yours. I won’t try to persuade you out of it,” she informed.

“Thank you… I want to try. I have a plan.”

She didn’t respond to his words. This made the rest of the breakfast quite awkward. As soon as they finished eating, Ren returned to his room. He applied some more ointment and went to take a nap, which briefly disturbed Tsukiko’s slumber, but after voicing her complaints, she ended up sleeping on his belly.

She even awakened him when the time for lunch came, by licking his face. He went to the dining room where he joined Ayako by the table, but the old man didn’t show up. They waited for him, and then his wife even called out his name, but he didn’t show up, so they ended up eating without him.

With a full belly, Ren returned to his room, since it was a bit too early to go visit the apes held captive in the underground of the Tachibana clan’s stadium. There was not much for him to do in there, so he just sat on the ground, watching the cat.

Exhausting his body with more training seemed foolish, even with the extraordinary self-healing powers this new body of his apparently possessed. He wasn’t sure if they would be enough to get rid of exhaustion if he kept practicing, not to mention that without going to the dojo, he didn’t even have access to any of the training weapons.

As he contemplated on those things, the soft sound of the door sliding open behind brought him back to reality. It was Satoru, who entered his room.

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With the presence of the guest, Ren turned around in a sitting position.

“I was going to give it to you later, but you might need it soon,” the old man said. Then, from underneath his kimono, he pulled out a sword in a nice, dark saya. “I had it made a long time ago, and it waited for a worthy user. It might not be on par with a Jujin, but it’s a solid work of our blacksmiths, so the quality is better than most of the things you could possibly buy in the city. It’s yours,” he said, going on his knees, to then present the weapon to Ren with extended hands. “This doesn’t mean I suddenly changed my mind. You are doing something stupid, but I clearly can’t persuade you to stop, so at least I should help you, so you can avoid death.”

“Thank you,” Ren responded, taking the sword from the old man. “I won’t die,” he assured.

“Tsk! I’ll leave you now before you make me angry again,” Satoru said while getting up, then left.

Ren watched him until the old man vanished behind the door, which he slid closed. Alone, except for Tsukiko, who was asleep, he pulled the blade out of the saya and examined it carefully. It was dark, with a shiny, silver-ish edge. Very light. Clearly a weapon made by the clan, as even the handle and tsuba were completely black.

He stood up with it, practicing a few strikes and moves he learned from Satoru. The difference between a real weapon and a wooden one, which he was training with so far, was easily noticeable. This one seemed to move more smoothly. He felt as if his attacks were faster, sharper.

‘Will that be enough?’ he asked himself, but couldn't provide an answer.

There was a tiny bit of hope within him that Tsukiko would feel called out, and maybe say something, but she remained silent within his head. He wasn’t sure if she ignored him or was simply asleep as her cat form would suggest.

He slid his new weapon behind his obi and then decided to leave the house, heading to the Tachibana clan. It was still slightly too early, but he didn’t have much else to do anyway.

He arrived at the stadium undisturbed and then went down to where the apes were kept. The clan members were hanging around the post at the beginning of the passage. There were some new people he hadn’t met before, and a couple he already knew – among them Ryota, who stepped out, noticing the intruder.

“You came again. I wasn’t sure if you would. The trial is soon… You really won’t give up, will you?” he asked, as a slight smile appeared on his face.

“I won’t,” Ren assured.

“I see you even got your own weapon. Can I see?”

“Sure,” he pulled the katana from behind his obi and presented it to the man.

Ryota took it respectfully, with both hands and pulled the blade slightly out of the saya to have a look at it.

“It’s very well made. You can see the Noroi clan’s craftsmanship here… Is it a Jujin?” One of his eyes shifted from the weapon to Ren.

“No,” he shook his head. “But I wish it was.”

Ryota let out a chuckle. “Yes. I wish you had it too; it would help you a lot,” he said, pushing the blade back into the saya before respectfully returning it.

Ren took it and slid it back behind his obi. “It’s not easy to get a Jujin. That is why I need to defeat one of those apes. A craftsman promised me a Jujin if I could do it. I know he did it so I would give up, but I want to at least try...”

“For a blade like that, it might be worth putting your life on the line, but don’t get your hopes too high… So far you’ve only seen them calm in the cages, but they are different when you remove the bars, and they can actually grab you. Remember, there is no shame in giving up,” Ryota said.

“Are you worried about me?” Ren’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead.

“I’m afraid you will be paralyzed with fear the moment one starts charging at you, and you will forget the tongue in your mouth.”

“I won’t...”

Ryota shrugged. “The decision is yours...”

They both went silent for a brief moment before Ren pointed further into the tunnel. “I’ll go feed them and watch them some more.”

“We already fed them, but they sure can eat some more,” the man acknowledged, turning around and returning to his colleagues.

Ren, like many days before, went to fulfill his duties, then replenished the food from the storage, and ended up spending quite a bit of time sitting on the floor and watching the apes.

There was one he was observing more than the others. The smallest of them all, which he was planning on choosing. The monster must have sensed it, as it sat on the ground within hand’s reach from the bars, and glared back at the human.

It turned into a staring contest as if the two of them understood what was about to happen. None seemed scared of the other, but they both tried to intimidate each other with their eyes full of confidence and resolve.

Eventually, Ren went home where dinner awaited him. The old man was present during the meal, but he, and everybody else, remained silent, adding to the already tense atmosphere. There was a slight change compared to the morning, where anger and frustration were visible on the faces of both men. Now, Satoru showed signs of worry, and he wasn’t the only one. Ayako also seemed concerned, although she refrained from putting her emotions into words.

Finished, Ren went to his room, where he practiced with the sword a bit longer, until the daylight forced him to stop.

As he turned around to rest on the futon, he saw Tsukiko. The cat-goddess was awake and sat with her tail swinging around as she observed.

"What?" Ren asked her verbally.

'Nothing,' she replied in his mind. 'You appear confident. That's all.'

'I shouldn't be? Are you trying to tell me that I will fail?'

'I can't see the future. It's a mystery for me, as much as it's a mystery for you, but I have a better understanding of the situation than you have.'

'And based on that understanding, you are suggesting I should give up?' His eyebrows climbed up his forehead as worry found its way to his heart.

'No. I'm not suggesting anything.'

'You are clearly playing with me!' He complained.

She giggled in response. 'Maybe I am.'

'If you think I should give up, then tell me. I don't want to die.'

'If you believe you should give up, then give up.'

He growled at her, showing his frustration. She countered it with a giggle.

'Fine, I'll give up then!'

'So your confidence was just a facade? What about your wife? Are you going to allow some other man to put his hands on her? Where is your resolve? You got this great body, you learned how to use the sword, you even got a brand new katana, and set your plan in motion. Shouldn't all that let you win? And what is Hinata going to say when she hears you have a big mouth but are just talk, no deed? She is never going to even look at you.' She said glaring at him with her cat eyes as her tail moved around.

'You are taunting me now…'

'Yes,' she shamelessly admitted.

He growled again before pulling his weapon from behind his obi and setting it aside on his futon as he lay down, first stepping over the cat who remained in the same place.

Full of frustration and worry, he tried to get some sleep, but it didn't come easily to him this time.