CHAPTER 40
Time flew…
Months of arduous training quickly went by without a single good moment of rest for Megumi. Over the eleven months he had as the heir of the great Fujiboma Clan, he learned how to act and behave as a young master should… not that he intended to use the knowledge anytime soon.
But more than that, Gekka made sure to teach him how to address other people, especially children his age, lest he have his head detached from his body and roll on the ground one day.
From the main powerhouses to the sub-branches of human existence, he learned all of it. Every name, every last name, and every power that could potentially be his downfall known to clan Fujiboma was fortuitously taught to him.
He had always thought the reason his sister decided to lock herself inside the house every day was that she wanted to avoid people; well, now he was really starting to reconsider.
During the day he read, studied, and practiced etiquette, and in the evening, he perfected Raven's Flick while learning Shadow Strike. A few other days, he also got to spar with other children from Clan Fujiboma.
Yuki was also working hard herself; at least she was far better at doing whatever Clan Fujiboma's conventional decorum required than he would ever be.
And watching her grow was perhaps one of the many things driving him to push forward. They both wanted to grow strong enough so they could acquire the knowledge they desired without question. It wasn't a great motivation by most standards, but at least it worked for them…
By the end of the first month, after Gekka decided to improve his and Yuki's methods of training, he came many steps closer to mastering Raven's Flick and conventional decorum.
Before the month came to an end, everything etiquette required of him was just about ingrained in his mind: how to talk, how to walk, how to address his elders, and even those younger than him in power. In his mind, he learned every daily life code that would guarantee he would live for another day, especially outside the safety of Fujiboma's walls.
And by the end of it, he was just a few more days of training away from mastering the techniques of Raven's Flick. That was also when he decided to start doing something he had wanted to do for a while…
Learning how to use a sword…
The very first thing he learned was a sword-draw technique, which wasn't very difficult to learn after spending over three months mastering Raven's Flick.
On the second month, his daily lessons continued, and by evening he learned how to draw a sword properly. Swiftly transitioning from having his sword sheathed to having it gripped and ready for action.
It required everything his battle style taught him… Speed, control, and the sword-draw technique he chose to learn, Kato Nuki, were the perfect balance for his fluid and flexible style.
It allowed him to fluidly blend into motion as his sword swiftly came free, a technique that allowed him to slither around the battlefield while his sword waited to unleash havoc for as long as he wanted.
By the third month, he began learning about other battle styles and sword techniques by day, while he further enriched his knowledge of how to wield a sword by evening.
For hours he studied an endless list of styles, mainly focusing on the popular ones and the few exclusive know-hows of some well-known families and clans. His reason was quite simple…
If push came to shove, he would have to go against many of those styles one day, and he wasn't planning on losing. And the few years he had spent with Yuki had already taught him just how this world worked; every other kid out there, learning just like he was, had probably already done, or was doing, the same thing he was.
As the fourth month began, he had already incorporated most of the knowledge of some existing styles while simultaneously mastering how to wield a blade.
His swordsmanship was steadily getting decent, with a few spars with Gekka's trusty paladin. The golden knight was a nightmare when wielding its luminescent claymore, and he had ended up losing each one of their fights.
He continued learning through the fifth month, and by the sixth, a miracle occurred.
It had felt surreal, almost like he was in a dream, but one day while practicing the basic katas of his sword art as usual, he heard the voice of the system. The system worked in strange ways and would sometimes simply stop working, so it had come as a subtle shock to him.
After so long, he was finally able to receive his divine inheritance as the heir of the Fujiboma Clan, but not without trouble. If anything, his profound ability to wield and manipulate light would only be a trump card against his opponents; he still had to learn how to use it, regardless.
Yuki turned eleven a month later; he was a month older than her, and finally, one more month after his birthday, at the dusk of spring, the day they had all anticipated arrived.
********
Megumi found himself in the midst of a grove, a peaceful cluster of trees spanning into the distance, but that was only in the center where he stood.
Further into the distance, the lush trees were scarred with twisted branches reaching out like skeletal fingers. Here and there, it looked like the bark of the once-sacred trees was stripped, with weird symbols scraped into their trunks.
And with the mountains circling them, towering peaks casting gloomy shadows upon him, the air thick and heavy, he couldn't help but slightly shudder. He slowly turned around and looked up at the towering peaks closing in on the grove like nature's own amphitheater.
Just that this certainly wasn't created by nature, and he had one job in this eerie, mystical place. Today was going to be his first demon hunt.
He sighed and glanced all around him at the eerie stillness in the distance and at the other children there with him. There were three of them: a boy and two girls with him.
The boy had slightly tanned skin and a lean, toned body with a few freckles sprinkled below his cat-like dark brown eyes. His hair was black and gelled back, and his muscles were far more defined compared to Megumi's, but he was a bit short.
He was a child born of one of the three main branches of Clan Boma, Rei Hiraboma, and he possessed an enhancement-type ability.
The two ladies, though, were from two of the lesser families directly under the Fujiboma branch, the Kurosaki and Ryu households.
Mei Kurosaki possessed a slender, toned physique, black hair tied back into a ponytail, and emerald green eyes. Her skin was almost as pale as Megumi's, and she had a bold look. She also possessed a perception-type ability.
Ryu Hime, on the other hand, the first and only daughter of the Ryu family, was a bit timid with her shoulders tensed up and her gaze on the ground. Her hair was golden brown, long, and flowing past her shoulders, and her eyes were an emerald blue.
She was petite with golden-toned skin and was only slightly taller than Rei. Her ability was of the binding type.
And with him, they were a solid group of four.
Mei closed her eyes for a few seconds and then opened them, her gaze slowly shifting to Megumi.
"I can't sense the demon anywhere."
He heaved a sigh and folded his lips.
"We should proceed further into the grove. We have to find the demon before it finds us…"
Just as he finished speaking, the surrounding trees trembled, shaking violently as if the ground were rumbling. But the ground was completely still.
They all peered into the distance, each with a different expression on their faces.
'Man, talk about timing.'