"Zzz Zzz"

Pitch black everywhere inside the tent, everyone appears to be sleeping with apparent snoring sounds which can be heard.

There are three beds inside the tent, with an extra two futon on the floor. Apparently, even with the exquisite lodging accommodations, it seems Murakami-san misjudged the amount of people that came to the village yet again.

Multiple tents were set up like this around both arenas on either side of the academy.

There was a huge bustling crowd three to four hours ago for getting the beds or everyone to sleep.

When I tell you about the beds, you can imagine how rowdy it was in the case for food. Food ran out right after seven o'clock and had to be remade again to serve the rest of the people.

But the academy was prepared for it regardless, they had excess supplies in storage as a result of the food shortage in the second trial of the year that occurred two years back.

One could see a lot of tents cramped up with people and only the medical recovery tents were spared, although they too had to accommodate two extra people.

Takeshi, Kenichii and Kaori, were all sleeping on the beds, while two other people who came along with other participants were lying on the floor, sleeping on the futon.

Kenichii was fast asleep, and as you can guess, the snoring noises were his, although Takeshi too did exhibit snoring sounds, but it was low pitched. I don't even know if that's the right way to describe them but based on Kaori's expression, it must be that.

'I wonder when this loud whistle will stop, atleast Dara-shi has the decency to lower his whistle noise. hahh' Kaori thought this and sighs while she is laying down on her bed.

'I can't help but think how easy it is to put a makura over his head, then I could finally sleep in peace.'

Kaori falls asleep some time later, and now all occupants are in deep sleep.

Almost five hours later...

Two eyes suddenly open up in the pitch black tent. It turns to both sides and analyzes the situation it is in.

The two eyes found that, on its body there seemed to be the hand of an another man wrapped around it. And apparently, there is another source of snoring besides the one on the bed adjacent to him. And it was coming from the person who apparently had his arms around his body.

Takeshi, who realized what was going on was holding himself in, while screaming internally.

He turns his head to the side to see a person.

He reached for a small oil lamp that was kept on the side and slightly turned it on. He wanted to see who the person was, that was sleeping in his bed, or rather with their arms wrapped him.

He brought the dim light of the lamp closer to himself and looked at the person and let out a shriek which he muffled with great courage.

An old man with noticeably gray hair, beard and dressed in a dark colored kimono which had some intricate thread patterns. Not that he recognized who it was but he turned off the light and tried to remove his hands from his body.

'Ugh, I have to remove this man's hands before I can leave for training. Grandpa and Sensei mentioned hurdles in my path to the way of the sword, but no one told me I will have to remove a gorilla-grip man holding on to me as if I'm a dakimakura.

Man this is hard.'

Takeshi stretches his hands to its maximum and takes a pillow from under Kenichii's head, as he is in deep sleep, he isn't disturbed by it and remains in his asleep state. He then places it between his body and the man's body, under his arms.

He slowly tries to pull out, but in vain. He is unable to use his full strength as he is a bit concerned about opening up his wounds again.

After a bit of struggling, he manages to put the man's hands over the pillow and slips away.

"Hahh Hahh, I swear, that was harder than the training Kenichii made me do."

Takeshi calms down, stabilizes his breath and looks around, as he is unable to see, he turns on the lamp again and looks around. Two people on the floor on their futons, Kaori on the bed farthest to him and all three of their swords on the side of her bed.

"Okay so, now I have to get there, grab the sword and leave without making any sound or alerting anyone. Sounds simple enough."

Takeshi walks towards Kaori's bed. "I guess?"

"Damn, she's menacing even when she's sleeping. But uhm... a bit cute too I guess."

Takeshi somehow manages to get to the other side of the bed by crossing over the man on the floor.

"Oops, the lamp almost slipped, I have to be more careful."

"Alright,

This isn't my sword, This isn't my sword,

Ah yes this is it."

Takeshi grabs his sword sets it on his obi, takes a hakama and some bandages from the table and walks slowly.

He walks over the supposed island of a futon he has to cross and walks out of the tent.

Another pair of eyes suddenly open and observes the situation right as Takeshi walks away.

"Hmm."

Takeshi, removes the old bandages he had on himself, and replaces it with the new ones he took from the tent. He then took the hakama and wore it to cover it.

"Oh its white ah, oh well."

He pulls the sword up again and places it over he hakama.

"Okay all good to go..

Now to find a way to sneak out, can't use the main gate, have to climb over the fences probably."

Takeshi walks to the nearest fence with fewer tents near it.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Oh so this the fence eh." Takeshi slowly looks from his neck level to above his head level.

The fence was made of bundled sticks and there were several layers to it, behind it was a barricade to support it.

"Okay so that's totally not climbable.

Guess I'll have to cut it."

'Swoosh'

"Okay so that's done. I'll slowly sneak out."

Takeshi is now fully out of the academy area.

In the distance, A man who was standing outside on the engawa, enjoying the early morning breeze.

"Hahh that boy, He's feisty as always, but this will provide him more experience and his blood is now boiling with energy, It is best to have it while you can I suppose. This is an uncertain age after all."

*****

The Crescent shaped moon is still blinking away in the night sky, although the night is alive now, but only for an hour or two, moments before it is murdered by the dawn

The Forest is quite dense, with quite a lot of trees and bushes, the vegetation was quite profound, there are open spaces in the middle which are usually cleared out just for camping for travelers. And there are a wide variety of fruits that could be eaten, while some are of course, poisonous. It would definitely seem like it was different a lot of forests one would normally see.

While the forests in the shogunate are teeming with wildlife, there is another danger that is lurking, while most of it is rumors and hearsay, the villagers and commoners has never seen it but they do fear them.

It is said that there are demonic beasts lurking in some of the forests, not all. Blood beasts like blood bees, vambats and six horned boars are some of them that are in the rumors, although blood bees did become a common sight after some time and it only fueled their fear.

But then again, the chances of them being true or appearing in front of you are very less.

Or are they???

Takeshi walks across the forest, looking for a good spot to train himself. He had snuck out at this early hour, for one and one purpose alone. He had clearly seen the stark difference between him and his opponent in the tournament and that it was only the beginning of the power difference.

He had to get stronger by himself, no one is going to feed it to him.

'My grandfather offered me his help and I refused, now I need help, and I'm getting it but I do not know how to make full use of it. It is my own weakness that is causing my downfall. If I don't overcome this now, I will be stuck at this level for the entirety of my life.

If I must change, It must come from me, I must put in the work, I must push myself, I must get out of my comfort zone. I'm sorry for everything, everyone... But I promise, I will be strong.

I will be worthy of wielding you, Mizuko.

I will be worthy... of being the next SWORD EMPEROR!!!'

Takeshi walks further deep into the forest, and finally finds himself a clearing to train himself.

"All Right, I guess I'll start with the warm up stuff Kenichii made me do, then I will proceed with the sword training."

Takeshi warms himself up with all the running and stealth exercises, he was careful no to overdo it lest it should open up the wounds. Small animals like rodents and birds started to appear near the bushes in front of him and they watched him break a sweat as he trained.

After finishing the basic stuff, he proceeded to work on the sword technique he was taught by Kenichii, the First Draw Style, which is one of the main techniques that comes under the Ancient Emperor Style.

He followed the several steps that made up the technique and practised it, but no matter how much he tried he couldn't do the footwork the way it was intended. His feet would either extend a bit too much, causing him to lose balance or it wouldn't reach enough for it to be complete.

"Huff Huff

WHY?

WHY WON'T MY LEGS STAY THE WAY I WANT IT TO? WHY IS IT EXTENDING WAY TOO MUCH, IT IS CAUSING ME PAIN AS WELLL, Hahh"

Takeshi screamed in frustration, this has been the case for him ever since he was taught this sword style.

"I can walk normally, run normally, move about in any other way normally, but once I try to stretch my legs or do anything that is a bit too complex, my legs wont listen to me?

Am I actually incapable of being a Swordsman?"

Takeshi was tired, despite all the blood, sweat and effort he put into this, his legs betrayed him.

'No, I won't be held down by this, I'll cut down my legs and train!.

. . .

Oh wait, that's stupid.

Well, anyways, I'll just keep training, I'll ask Sensei if I can do anything about this'

Takeshi continues to train his sword, surrounded by more and more of the audience.

While he is focused on this entirely, he is unaware of the danger that is gonna befall him.

Something is coming, slowly approaching Takeshi from behind, something, whose very sight scares the smaller animals away.

Disturbed by the smaller animal's noises and the sight of them running away, Takeshi realizes there's something behind him. He slowly turns to see the creature that is behind him.

An animal, 2 to 3 feet in height and considerably long, with a fur coat which is pale yellow or light gold with distinctive black rosettes arranged in a circular pattern on their fur.

It had a long and slender tail with a few black rings and a white tip at the end. It's face having a similar pattern of rosettes and eyes of a yellowish green shade. It was small, but pretty muscular.

It walks pretty slowly, approaching him, locking its eyes with the amber colored eyes of Takeshi.

Takeshi was pretty calm on the outside, while thinking of what his next move should be.

'Okay, I clearly won't have a chance here, so I should make a run for it, as soon as I get an opening.

But how do I do that, there is nothing to distract it.

Hmm... should I attack it? No, No, It would only make it worse.

Or maybe I could land a good hit and then use the gap to make a run for it?

Yeah that's a good idea.'

While thinking of this, he totally forgot the fact that he won't or rather he can't make a proper hit because of his unyielding legs. Very smart move Indeed.

Eyes locked on each other they slowly move towards one another.

Takeshi uses ki on his foot to use karuiashi and speeds up to the leopard and slashes his sword. Within a split second, it jumps back and launches itself to attack Takeshi. While Takeshi was barely holding on, he managed to stand and fend off its attacks.

Finding another opening again, Takeshi went forward for the attack which missed its target, yet grazing the beast.

'Grrrr'

Quick to respond, the leopard swiftly ran to the sides to distract him and diverted his attention and then it pushed its legs back, prepared its step and jumped on Takeshi.

'Rawrr'

Takeshi who was in the final posture of the attack, could only hear the sound and didn't get enough time to react.

It slashed him using his claws right where his previous wounds were.

"AAARGH"

Takeshi gritted his teeth in pain, right as the blood started to gush out of his body like a waterfall. His hakama was stained red and it had blood dripping off it.

Not giving up, he decided to pierce the tiger with his sword.

"If I'm gonna die here without ever realizing my dreams, I'm taking you down with me, you got that YOU STUPID FURRY CAT!"

Takeshi's sword pierced through the mid-section of the leopard, it wasn't enough to kill it, but it definitely was mortally wounded. It fell down and lay on the ground, slowly moving its paws to get back up.

"Okay I think its time for me to ru-" 'koff'

In addition to the blood from his chest, he spit out blood. 'I shouldn't talk I suppose.' He thought.

Takeshi looked at the ground to make sure he can run safely without worrying about a backstab attack from the leopard. He was shocked to see the leopard already on its feet.

"You got to be kidding me!"

Just as Takeshi was standing there think9ing what to do, sounds of different animals could be heard.

'howl' 'howl' 'squeak' 'chirp chirp' 'chirp, chirp'

Takeshi turned in the direction of the sound, but it was all over. The leopard too turned its head around, to verify the noise.

Both of them noticed that something had changed from when they began their fight.

Dawn broke, Light blue color filled the sky, the moon had ran away already.

The leopard noticed some smaller animals on the side and was starting to focus on it. Taking advantage of this, Takeshi ran away, he turned back occasionally to check if the leopard was following him and was relieved that it wasn't.

But then again, he forgot the fact that he had lost a lot of blood already and had barely minutes before he would pass out.

Takeshi ran, he didn't realize that he was running in the opposite direction and reached the other side of the forest. There was a river in front of him. Seeing it, he stopped running, and then the effect of the blood loss started to kick in.

He became dizzy, losing his balance, and barely able to walk and somehow stumbled in front of a cave, before he could go in, he collapsed and fell unconscious.

To be continued.