One week later

Seconds of continuous knocking on the laminated wooden floor brought disturbance to the entire dojo. There were plenty of ragged dummy swords lying alongside Daniel and debris piled across his feet. “Are we good now, sensei?”

The silver-haired man with a long goatee kneeled on the floor, visibly masking his pain while trying to stand up. Sweat poured from his neck down, leaving a boiling puddle.

“The dojo hasn’t seen you in years. You shouldn’t have…”

“Enough of the bullshit. You really have degraded. I guess you call that karma for ditching me all those youth days,” Daniel interrupted. Xavier, standing on the sidelines, tossed an unwieldy katana. He caught it, removing the scabbard and glared at the blade; the katana grew heavier each second Daniel stared at it. “Hmm, something is unusual about this katana. Where did you get this?”

“I ain’t telling you a damn thing!” Kenzo blurted through his troubling pain.

Daniel quietly turned to Xavier, pointing at one of the shoji. He quickly opened the one in which the panel was entirely darkened by multiple silhouettes. Instead, he tore it apart and lifted the entire frame, throwing it away in a slingshot. The frame went boomerang as Daniel dove his head down. Then, it clashed with the wall shattering the wood that was part of the frame of the dojo. It easily pierced through, and the entire side collapsed on itself, trembling the entire floor. With the side completely exposed, the widened view of the dojo’s garden leading to the front gates is entirely visible. Since there aren't any apartments and the walls on the lot are tall enough, no bystanders from the street can see the skirmishes from the dojo. As long as it's the main floor and not the upper stories.

Upon the removal of the shoji, a gathering of practitioners fell to the floor flat, leaving the possibility of being eavesdropped not to be ignored. Daniel asked Kenzo one more time where the origin of the katana was crafted. Holding by his word, he didn't completely respond, prompting Daniel to knee his jaw as an uppercut, knocking him out cold as he was about to crash to the floor. Followed by the gasping breath and silence.

“I'm sure I didn't teach you to do that,” Xavier said in a concerned tone through his throat. His hands were crossed and glanced down.

“Maybe if he hadn't discriminated against me when I could have got the chance, then yeah, I understand. Unfortunately not, so he is going bye-bye.”

“I don't understand you sometimes.”

“Yes, you do. You saw my list a couple of days ago. I’m just the key and chains required for tightening up a lock to close off a bit of my past…anyway we need to find if there are spares.”

Xavier flash stepped away, disappearing from the dojo. The practitioners groaned continuously and were about to reorganize themselves, only to face their unfortunate demise. Daniel approached them with the katana drawn, emitting a ghostly vibe through his dilated pupils. His menacing walk was followed by creaking footsteps as the area grew dim, blocking the sunlight from outside. He grunted with his mouth open, showing his angry grin.

A couple of practitioners withdrew their training swords idiotically, charging at him. He dodged downward when one of them charged with their sword drawn up in the air, and he bent down a second before his view lined up with the practitioner’s arm. As a result, Daniel went for the opportunity, positioning in a grappling position and bull-charged toward him. His sword went for the target, swiftly impaling through the abdomen, anchoring the practitioner for heavy lifting.

The second practitioner came from the side, and Daniel’s katana sliced the former in half as he articulated the blade at the latter. Qi rampantly exerted from the blade, striking and disintegrating him to ashes. By this point, all the practitioners present went mindlessly after seeing their two fellows killed. All objectively wanted him gone.

Their efforts were futile. Daniel continues the swarm of combat, stabbing them at various lethal points. With his excessive amounts of qi, the katana generated its own aura the longer Daniel was in a conflict. However, he doesn’t expect it to be so soon due to not even a minute has passed, and he already annihilated at a minimum of twenty at the current rate. Following the minute mark, only one individual was remaining, who was late to practice and came at the wrong time and day.

Daniel kicked the sole practitioner in his chest in the direction back to the hallway he came out from. He grabbed the scabbard and flashed to the hallway with his arm, urging for the kill. As he was about to finish it, the sole practitioner stood up with his face and neck tense up, bracing the pain from the kick. Daniel got a clear view of him, to his horror, and found him to be a younger boy compared to the rest of the practitioners.

He eased his katana and asked the boy. “How old are you, kid?”

“I'm fourteen…” he responded with a drool dripping from his mouth caused by the impactful kick to his chest.

Fourteen, what a poor young man. Daniel studied the boy’s form and expressions. Clearly, he lacked the confidence when he sensed he had a trace of qi coming from within his chest. He is like one of us. So it was like what Mother Elaine said, not knowing anybody else before me with the potential of more out in the world.

“What brings you to the dojo? You look young. Did sensei recruit you recently?”

The boy nodded as if he had no choice. “A couple months…my friends recommended it to me here,” He mumbled and moved to the wall, leaning his back to keep himself straight.

“Sounds like you have unfaithful friends to introduce you to here.”

“Where’s sensei?”

Daniel was silent momentarily and glanced back at the dojo’s entrance before turning back to the boy. “He’s dead,”

“Where do I go? I have nowhere.”

Oh man, no wonder he’s been misguided. Daniel took a deep breath and sheathed his katana. “You live alone?”

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He shook his head, mentioning a homeless shelter that was a thirty-minute walk from the dojo. Considering the circumstances, he wouldn’t always stay at the shelter and sleep at one of the twenty-four-hour libraries in Colemond. It had a much friendlier environment and made close friends with the staff there. Food wise though was unpredictable. He can go days without a full three meals daily with an average of one meal, usually at dinner.

Daniel urged the boy to sit down as he sat next to him, leaning against the wall and willing to listen to his story. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Liam-”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Liam!”

“Ah, well Daniel, pleasure,” Daniel greeted in a friendlier tone, offering a handshake.

Liam didn’t shake his hand and silently stared at the wall. Daniel partially pulled his katana out of the scabbard. It was rough on his palm, similar to a burned and chipped plank of wood. There were patches of darker tint sparsely all over the scabbard, invading most of the primary silver color. Xavier appeared, gripping two sheathed swords under his shoulders. “Hey, I found two. I think we should be good, wait. Who’s this?”

“He’s the last practitioner, Liam. Innocent boy working for his life.”

Xavier stared at Liam momentarily and Daniel stood, pulling back his hair and wiping the blood off his forehead. Xavier showed him the swords, revealing them to be the only ones remaining. He wondered what they should do with it, which Daniel had an idea. He temporarily placed his sheathed katana on his waist.

In comparison, out of all the three swords, Daniel’s katana is the shortest, but not by a wide margin, so the other two are still considered Katanas by appearance. All scabbards are designed differently, with no uniform consistency. Unfair. He noted the two have more polished textures and intricate designs that set each other apart.

The top one is crimson-themed with a layer of metallic vinyl where at the front are two rows of triangles with the pinnacle pointed towards the center. Daniel counted sixteen on the first and fourteen on the second row. He flipped it to the back of the scabbard, revealing heterogeneous black stripes covering the entire scabbard’s rear.

“That one supposedly represents the tiger,” Xavier stated.

“Have you tried withdrawing it?”

“No, I wanted you to see it firsthand. However, do you sense qi coming from it?”

Where? I swear it’s not- A thump struck within his arms as if he got hammered down into a free fall. “Just now I did.”

Xavier blinked. “Wow, you really lacked qi awareness at the most random times ever. And it happened again.”

“I’m actually serious and not being a dick about it. I swear I only felt the hit after you asked,” Daniel replied.

“Anyway, take the top one then and show me.”

Before he did, he observed the second one that was below the crimson-themed scabbard. Much simpler design with a few polygon themes set across from the locket downwards to the center. The polygon’s shape was indented inward with an imprinted leafy green color. And the rest of the scabbard was coated with a gold enamel paint. The texture matched with what was found on a stove pot. Glossy reflection towards the direction of a light source.

Daniel gulped, grabbing the crimson-themed scabbard. Just like how he did to his katana, he partially pulled it open and immediately faced a surge of crimson red qi, flowing out the opening of the scabbard. Xavier quickly placed the other sheathed sword down. He then assisted him, closing it back up. The two grunted as if there was no tomorrow. This sword is freaking heavy. Holy mother of god. Daniel clenched his jaws and lifted his head up, anticipating more leverage.

“What is this treachery?!” Xavier said.

“I don’t care if this place collapses. We need to close this, otherwise this area is toast!”

Both exerted their aura to the brink, vibrating the entire hallway. Swirling gusts encircled them while Daniel braced his arms and core, absorbing more qi directly into the region. Xavier gave a count to three, and he placed his palms on the opposite end. With one at the edge of the hilt and at the end of the scabbard, he saw veins protrude from Daniel’s forearms, which was when the three seconds were up, prompting a phase of two shockwaves clashing at one another.

The aura and vast amount of qi slowly outweighed the natural gravity, forcing the structure to decompose and collapse. In an unintentional surprise, Liam gained his footing and pressured his entire dominant left arm onto the end of the scabbard.

“Liam, what are you doing?! Get out of here!”

“No way!” He forbade to depart and forced himself onto the scabbard’s chape.

Daniel tried to persuade him, but it was too late when the qi grew heavy, taking all of them with it. The dojo collapsed simultaneously as he heard the click coming from the katana connected with the locket. Subsequently, the three fell to the flat ground beyond the dojo’s foundation. With a momentarily clear view, Daniel let go of the scabbard and thrust his palm up, redirecting his qi outward and creating a cornea-shaped shield. He gazed at his surroundings, ensuring the other two were under it.

Xavier was protecting Liam with his back hovering over him, and he summoned his own barrier around him. Daniel boosted his escalating qi to raise the rate of destroying the falling debris.

Daniel’s katana along his scabbard glowed through his suit jacket in pure, white light. What immediately followed was the other two swords glowed within their scabbards and hovered into the air right under the shield. His katana then flew through the suit jacket and out of his waist, and the three sheathed swords lined up in a straight line, hovering in the air high.

The three removed themselves from their respective scabbards, and the scabbards glowed as well. That's when the three swords reorganized themselves and spread out. The scabbards then acted according to their particular Katanas by its side and illuminated in a beam characteristic, shooting upwards beyond Daniel's shield.

The dazzling swarms of three clashing colors crashed onto his shield, shattering it. Daniel glimpsed his katana and the first time witnessed its dominant qi amassed in such moon white that it overrode the other two colors.

Xavier and Liam crawled up near Daniel, where they got a clear view of the three swords annihilating the entire rubble and the dojo all around them.

Eventually, the assuming task was complete, and the three swords sheathed themselves back into their scabbards. They calmly descended where Daniel’s katana fled back into his grip. While the crimson-themed and leafy green sword spun in a circle in the air. The chape of the scabbard shot crimson and green light, and the green light hovered over Liam and the former shined on Xavier. The two swords diverged and descended in front of the two, visibly insisting that they should take ownership of it.

“What is it doing?” Liam asked.

“The sword chooses you. Take it, it’s yours,” Daniel replied, lifting himself up from the dirt.

Liam, with his left arm shaken, reached for the hilt. His elbow was gashed open and blood leaked out, leaving a pool of red blood on the floor.

Daniel grabbed his hand, assisting him firmly with holding his new primary weapon. “Liam, you are wounded. We need to get you to the hospital.”

“I can’t go…”

“I’m not taking a no for an answer. We are going and it’s on me.”

He then carefully lifted Liam’s left arm onto his back. Next with Xavier behind, he launched out into the air and saw through his peripherals the overall lot of the dojo’s remains, leaving an empty dirt crater.