Chpt. 33) Oaths

I was back at Nexus and ready to go. I saved the twins from bullying. Got off an excellent insult and safely got the twins back to the hotel. Everything was going great. And I sat in the training building with my new sword and wondered what the fuck happened to it to make it glow!?

The katana sat on my lap in its sheath, and I could feel the chakra going through it. I pulled the blade out and looked at the shining beauty for the hundredth time that morning. I traced the black lines along the blade and reveled at the change in color from blue to red for the millionth time. I ran my fingers along the blade from the base to the tip. The base of the blade felt cold as ice, while the tip felt like it would burn me if I touched it for too long.

“How did this happen?” I asked nobody in particular.

“I do not know,” Fengbao answered, “Swords are not my weapon of choice.”

“Well, that’s helpful,” I said sarcastically.

“I don’t believe it is,” Apollo said.

I rolled my eyes and continued to ponder what had happened. Then I shrugged, “I’m not going to get any training done at this rate if I just sit here and do nothing.” I held the sword with both hands, sent my Ice-claymore chakra to my tail, and cut it off. Thirty seconds later, two more tails grew, and I had a clone.

Goro, my clone, smiled at me and created a longer katana than I had, and I rolled my eyes. Goro laughed, “You know size matters.”

I scoffed, “Size matters not when you are as skilled as I!”

We laughed and charged at each other, and we began trading blows. And since we knew what the other was thinking, it was a pretty uneventful fight as we could never land a solid hit on the other. But something odd happened as we fought. Every so often, the blade would turn and force Goro to perry rather than block, or it would rotate slightly, causing me to make a diagonal slash rather than a straight downward slash, and so on.

Each time it felt both unnatural and natural at the same time. Like someone was forcing me to make those slashes that I didn’t want, but each one felt right to do. It was weird. After a couple of hours and I recalled Goro. I then wanted to try something different with the blade. I gathered my Storm chakra and sent it into the blade. A second later, the sword blew up, and I had to drop the beautiful sword. I looked down at it and saw it was completely undamaged. It was weird.

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Instead of giving up, I decided to try one more time. This time I sent Ice-claymore chakra into the blade, and something different happened. The blade became a dark blue, and the hot air began to condense and turn into mist. I momentarily gaped at the change before raising my sword high over my head and slashing down with a single long slash. An arc of ice shot out from the blade and embedded itself in the far wall before breaking into hundreds of ice chunks.

I smiled, “Oh, this is cool.” I then switched to my Inferno core and did the same thing. The blade turned red hot and sent arcs of fire whenever I swung the blade. “This is awesome!” I exclaimed.

Then I thought of what else I could do with the ability. It has a fire and ice combination, right? Why not use both to wield the blade? I cycled my Ice-claymore and Inferno chakra into the blade, and I heard the blade hum. Seconds later, the blade grew in length until it was twice my size. I swung the blade again, and it felt so light as I sent arcs of fire and ice everywhere.

“This is an incredible blade,” I decided as I stopped swinging it around. Then a thought occurred to me as I stared at the blade, “A sword worth of myths and legends deserves a name. What should I call you?” I thought for a moment more and snapped my fingers as it came to me, “I will name you Crucible. It is going to be fun using you … uh … one day. Shit, I don’t think I’m allowed a weapon in the tournament.”

“No, I don’t believe you are either,” Fengbao confirmed.

“Well, hopefully someday soon, I can use you, Crucible,” I said as I sheathed the blade.

As I sheathed the blade, I could’ve sworn I heard a whisper say, “Soon.”

I turned around to look at the door and saw nobody there. Then I looked around the rest of the room and still saw nobody. I shrugged and went to leave the training room. I had been in there for hours and was getting tired. I needed something to eat too. I opened the door, and Cami barged into the room, “HEY, ZEANA!”

Jumping in surprise, I exclaimed, “AH! What?!”

“Hey, Zeana! Want to have some fun?” Cami asked a little seductively.

“What do you mean?” I asked, a little skeptical.

Cami threw her arm around me and said, “Let’s go out on the town and have fun. Just us girls.”

“Just us girls?”

“Yep. You, me, and Scarlet!” Cami explained, and Scarlet poked her head in through the door.

“Welcome back, Scarlet! And the correct phrasing is You, Scarlet, and I.”

Cami groaned, “Fine, grammar nazi. You, Scarlet, and I. Are you in or not?!”

I pondered it for a moment and shrugged, “I don’t—”

“She’s in! Let’s go! And here, change your clothes!” Cami exclaimed, cutting me off, running out of the room, and tossing a pack of clothes at me. “You can leave your stuff in the lockers here. So, no need to worry about bringing your sword and stuff. The twins are taking care of Yuki, and we’re waiting on you.”

I opened the pack and pulled out my cargo shorts and a simple t-shirt before asking, “I had no choice in the matter, did I?”

“Nope! Hurry up and change!” Cami said as she left the room and closed the door. Leaving me to change in privacy.

***