Reiko peered at Arakan's nose for seconds on end and said nothing. The urge to burst into laughter was hard to supress as much as she felt bad for him. Wrapped with a bandage and padded with some cotton underneath it, his nose looked bulbous and it resembled more of a beak than a nose. Yesterday, Fyodor decided that going to the doctor was too expensive so he and Mr Takazura, from the ceramic potting store had attempted to bandage Arakan's nose. Reiko couldn't hold it anymore.

"Hahahaha! You look like a bird! What happened yesterday?"

"Hey! It's no laughing matter, I went toe to toe with one of the strongest fighters in the East. Though... He did defeat me."

"That must've hurt..."

"Yeah. It hurt like hell, his acceleration and power was almost like he was a demon... And the worst part was that he was holding back all along."

Reiko had come to visit Arakan after school after hearing that he returned from the Miwaki Forest safely. Bringing over sweets and snacks that her mother, Reina, had prepared for them, she shared a table with Arakan as he told her about his experience in the jungle. Although she came from a blacksmithing family, she never had any interest in swordfighting but Arakan's stories of his adventures never once bored her. Despite seeming joyful and enthusiastic when telling Reiko of his battle against Shougo, Arakan was uneasy. He still doubted his strength and whenever Fyodor mentioned anything about the competition, he would unconsciously try to change the topic of the conversation. At times, he would just gaze into space.

"Yo! Arakan? You there?"

"Ah! Sorry I dozed off a little... I think I'm still not fully recovered from the fight. You were saying something?"

"Yeah, I was wondering if we could hang out tomorrow... You always seem so occupied with training lately."

"Tommorow? Damn, I really do wanna hang out with you, but Fyo wanted me to run an errand for him, delivering a letter or something..."

Hearing Arakan's response, Reiko fidgeted a little. Her fingers, which were rested on the table tightened up very slightly, unnoticed by anyone in the room.

"Well... I guess we'll do it another time. I'll be heading home, mom will get worried if I'm out too late."

"Didn't you arrive not too long ago? Kouji is preparing dinner... I'm sure Ms. Reina wouldn't mind if you had dinner with us."

"It's fine, thank you. See you!"

Before Arakan could even wave her goodbye, Reiko hurriedly left the house. Although Arakan seemed to take notice of her sudden change of behavior, his mind was too occupied for anything other than training. If possible, he wanted to dedicate every second to training. He knew it was impossible to win with beasts like Ryugyu and Shougo in the tournament. Even if Fyodor was telling the truth, when he said that Shougo would not be participating this year, Arakan knew that with his current abilities, winning was simply beyond him. He refused to settle for second place. After much thinking, he stood up and leaned forwards against the opened window. He questioned his own strength as a swordsman.

"Hmm... Looks to me like Reiko likes you, if you know what I mean."

"Huh? No, no, no. She's just a friend! Don't say such things!"

"Oh, so you do know what I mean..."

"N-no I don't! Fyo what are you saying!"

Sneering at Arakan, whose cheeks were beginning to turn crimson, Fyodor was leaning against the wall beside him. Small moments like this, sometimes do remove the pressure that Arakan was feeling. Fyodor fully understood Arakan's lingering thoughts and often used comical relief to take his mind off it. In his right hand, Fyodor was holding a wooden sword as he teased the embarrassed Arakan. There was something he wished to say.

"Do you remember the first thing I taught you about swordfighting?"

"Urm... The stance? Or maybe the fundamental strikes?"

"Ah, so you've forgotten about it. I'm talking about visualisation. You've not used it at all haven't you? During the fight against Shougo... You only battled him physically didn't you? How about spiritually?"

Arakan stood silent. During the entire fight, he purely depended on his physical abilities. Not once did he visualise his moves before he swung his blade neither did he attempt to predict the attacks that came towards him. He simply exploded towards Shougo and used his best moves against him. There was no strategy planned beforehand. The only thing that Arakan thought of then, was to land a hit. He realised his mistake. Fyodor spoke to him calmly, but beneath his friendly tone, Arakan could feel the disappointment that smothered his mentor.

"I don't expect you to beat a high profile fighter with tons of experience like Shougo. You're still 14. However, to not land a single strike and be brutalised like this... Don't you think you're wasting your potential?"

"Fyo... I'm sorry. At that time, it just didn't occur to me. I'm sorry for disappointing you."

"Don't apologise to me, really. I'm just here to help you become stronger... Isn't that your end goal? The world's strongest swordsman? Think of it like this, swordfighting is not just the art of controlling the blade. It's the art of putting your mind into the blade. Only then can you truly defeat your opponent."

"I think I lack training, what I've done simply isn't enough. Fyodor, please teach me-"

"If you fail to visualise your strikes, no amount of training will help you. Even if I sat here and taught you every technique I can think of, you wouldn't be able to excecute them."

Fyodor threw the wooden sword at Arakan after he finished his last sentence. Catching it with both hands, Arakan wanted to question Fyodor the purpose of his gesture but stayed silent. He felt like he had no right to speak. Forgetting the very first thing that was taught to him even after training for 2 years was a blunder he should have never made.

"Do as you wish with that. Sleep early though, tomorrow you'll need to help me with a delivery to the Sakuro district in Nozoru. It's pretty far from here"

Nozoru. That was the city that the feared Takaguchi Dojo was located at. Unlike Chiho, a city with only 2 districts, that are side by side, connected to each other and relatively small in size, Nozoru is huge. With a total of 12 districts and large, grassy land masses separating them, swordfighting dojos were scattered all around the town. The space between the districts was so huge that multiple villages could be found there. Arakan, who knew nothing about Nozoru aside from the Takeguchi Dojo being found there found the task rather daunting. However, having assumed that Fyodor would be accompanying him so he was not too worried about the trip tomorrow.

For now, he needed to master visualising his attacks and to spiritually beat his opponent. Arakan exited the house and stood in front of the scarecrow Kouji had built to scare off birds from pecking into his rice sacks. His eyes were shut. There were a few people still walking around the lane that he was at as nightfall has yet to occur but he paid no attention to them at all. In his mind, there was a scarecrow, there were no people walking and there was no Chiho. He was in a cave in Miwaki Forest, the pitter patter of rain outside it could still be heard and Shougo of the Hoseki style was in front of him. Deep in the layers of his mind, the battle was about to begin.

Arakan launched himself forward before abruptly halting before he sidestepped into Shougo's right blindspot. Shifting to a backhand position, he swept his sword in an upwards direction towards Shougo's chin. As he struck from beneath Shougo's centre point, it would prove impossible for Shougo to defend against the swing with his sword as the angle was too steep. Even if he could, he would inevitably leave an open space from his chest down to his legs for Arakan to attempt a leg sweep or shoot a knee to his groin.

"That was smart. It's just too bad I'm your opponent!"

Before Arakan's sword could even touch Shougo's neck, a sharp, pulsating pain burst on Arakan's left liver. It took only milliseconds before the pain turned unbearable and clawed into his ribcage. Instantaneously, Arakan's sense of equilibrium was disrupted and his slash missed its target. Seeing the wide opened Arakan grimacing and off balanced by his roundhouse kick to the boy's left liver, Shougo smashed his sword against the top Arakan's head, the strike eased by his stance that rested his sword on the back of his shoulders. Arakan had been defeated.

That was only the outcome of Arakan's first sequence of attack. He visualised the second, the third and continued the different set of moves and techniques that might give him an edge over Shougo to defeat him. Hundreds of combinations were attempted until finally, he reached the outcome where he stood victorious over Shougo. As the scene played through his mind, he slowly opened his eyes. The scarecrow came into view and some onlookers were staring at Arakan confusingly. Although his body was still firmly rooted to the ground, mentally, Arakan was fatigued. He felt that if he were to take a single step away from his stance, he would collapse.

"Fyodor, that kid has been standing there in that weird position for about a minute... He's not moved."

"He's evolving... At a scary pace. Imagine this, old man. You're 14 and fighting against one of the strongest swordsmen in the region who's almost twice your age. If you close your eyes and think of the amount of moves you can use against him, how many moves can you think of and how long would you take to imagine yourself beating him?"

"Maybe 15 moves? As for how long, I'd say... A really long time or perhaps never at all?"

"Arakan has probably envisioned a few hundred moves within a minute and found the exact combination needed to beat his opponent. He's only been training for 2 years."

Kouji couldn't utter a single word and simply stood frozen, observing the feat that Arakan had achieved. It was unthinkable. While Kouji and Fyodor were talking with each other, Arakan had reached his limit. Just as his legs were about to give in, Fyodor rushed to his aid. Before Arakan's knees

"You almost went unconscious there! Did you visualise yourself beating him?"

"Y-yes..."

"Good. Now you just need to cut down the number of moves you think of to a maximum of 10, before you find the one that kills your opponent. Oh, and this may sound insane but you need to find that move in at least a second.."

"A-At least? Fyo, I really hope this is a dream... I'll pretend I didn't hear what you just said."

"Damn... That's a different level of positive thinking. For me, I narrowed down to two moves within about a quarter of a second to beat Shougo."

Arakan's entire body had withered like a dying plant and had gone into a deep slumber. Heaving a long sigh, Fyodor picked him up both his arms and placed him down once he reached their room. Kouji, who just finished cooking dinner for three ended up letting Fyodor finish Arakan's portion. As for Arakan, the sleep he had today was going to be the last he would have for the next few days.

"Mr. Chiaki, I would like to see Master Ryugyu."

"Huh! What are you talking about? It's almost midnight, what make you think that he has time for you!"

"This is really important... I need to ask his permission for-"

Before Genjiro could further explain his intentions to Chiaki, who was awaken by the loud knocks on the dojo's door from Genjiro, a voice interrupted their conversation.

"Genjiro? Why are you here?"

"Master, I apologise for disturbing your sleep but a huge fight will happen tommorow at the Sakurai Dojo. I overheard that some of their swordsmen plan to gang up and kill whoever that shows up tomorrow after receiving a letter this morning... They're affiliated to us. Is it really alright to let them shed blood?"

"That's ridiculous. How could they be shaken by threats like that? If they do end up killing the visitor, it would definitely destroy our reputation..."

"What do you suggest Master?"

"Tomorrow morning, tell my uncle, the founder of the dojo, that the Takeguchi school strongly condemns their plan. Tell them to settle the dispute through a duel and not through the dishonourable act that they're scheming!"

Although he was never fond of the Sakurai school, Ryugyu had no choice but to adhere to his father's agreement to affiliate with them. Ryugyu's father, Date Takeguchi was very close to his younger brother, Sakurai, in fact Sakurai's style of swordfighting resembled closely to Date's as they formulated the style together. However, in the midst of creating the style, Sakurai found the style to be too forgiving. Date's opinion of finishing the opponent in a single strike never appealed to Sakurai. Despite that, he still suggested an affiliation with the Takeguchi school after seeing its success, aiming to absorb the credibility from their partner.

Unlike Date, Sakurai wanted to hurt his opponent and slowly chip away their health until they finally died in an agonising manner. He had long abandoned the code of honour. Ryugyu saw his style of fighting as cruel and dishonourable and often suggested to his father to cease their affiliation. However, his father's defense had always been that, without Sakurai, the Takeguchi style would not have come into existence. Ryugyu had foreseen this current situation coming a long time ago.

"Me? With all due respect, I think it would be better for you to send the message yourself since you as they might be less willing to listen if it comes from me."

"If I were to even take a step into that vile place, I might slaughter every single one of those vermin! They have no respect for swordfighting!"

"Alright then, I'll send your message to them tomorrow morning."

Similar to Ryugyu, Genjiro absolutely loathed the Sakurai Dojo. He often saw the students of the style spending late nights drinking, extorting regular civilians for their money and harassing the women in the area at every chance they got. In his eyes, there was no discipline in the dojo and they were simply absorbing the prestige and status of the Takeguchi school. However, since his master had tasked him to bring the message to Sakurai, he couldn't possibly say no. Realising that he had an important task the next day, Genjiro immediately began to make a move, he wanted a good night's rest.

Meanwhile, Kouji had been suspicious of Fyodor for the past few days. Sitting cross-legged on one of the many towering rice sacks, Fyodor would write something on a piece of paper, wait for the ink to dry, and then continue writing again. While waiting for the ink to dry, there were times where he would burst into laughter and during other times, he would co

"What is it that you're scheming this time, you bastard? I get that your intentions are-"

"Kouji... This kid has no idea how strong he is. He's just unlucky enough to fight against crazy strong opponents like me and Shougo. If he were to go against a whole dojo outside the big 3 sword schools, he would wipe out the entire place!"

"So what's your point? Get him to fight a whole dojo of 50 adults?"

Fyodor stood silent. He knew that if he elaborated further, Kouji would surely interfere with his plans. He had to say something before Kouji started scouring for more information. Something to redirect Kouji's angle of thought. Fyodor abruptly stopped his writing, placed the small brush gently beside him on a sack of rice and looked into Kouji's eyes. His line of vision traced past the air between them and peered into Kouji's soul. Into the depths of the old man's heart. Fyodor opened his mouth, the aura surrounding him, a shade of glowing blue akin to an inferno of blue flames.

"He won't die. I swear on my honour as a swordsman that he won't. My head is yours, the moment I go against my word."

"Very well then. Don't betray my trust Fyodor... Arakan must survive."