123 5.12 A Stroll in The Park and A Meet With Hiten and Manten! (1/2)

”Hey kid, are you still awake or are you sleeping?” Hiko-sama's head peeked into my small bedroom as he spoke softly from the door. It was as though he was unable to sleep since he had a new companion sleeping in his house.

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.

I stood up and rubbed my eyes and I replied, ”I am still adjusting to sleeping in this new place. Why aren't you asleep yet, Sensei?”

”I was thinking of what you did earlier with the chicken. Let's head north to the duelling place who knows you could experiment on someone there. It's a chicken you tried earlier, but let's try on someone instead.”

A gleam sparkled in his eyes as he spoke which also arouses my instinct. Although he mentioned going to the duelling place, and he had no one to duel with, I wondered what he had in mind if dragging me to that place.

”Alright, I prepare myself first. Do I need to bring this Kodachi along with me or you have something in mind?”

”Just bring the Kodachi along with you. I bring two of my katana instead. You try on the clothes that I had bought for you for tonight and here's this. Cover up your face when we entered the Northern side. We don't want anyone to recognise you. I have mine too so we put this one when we passed the sentry post there. It's been quite a while since I got there and there would be other funds that you might find interesting as well.”

”Yes, Sensei. Since it was a duelling place I'm sure to find some common bladed katana, guards and handles there which I might find it useful if I want to forge a new blade.”

”OK, I meet you at the terrace and we move out as soon as you are ready,” he replied as he closed the sliding door of my bedroom.

I quickly took off my yakata and hung it on a hook on the wall and changed into a red kimono and white hakama. I put on my white tabi and then grabbed my Kodachi and placed it on my left obi. I looked at myself and found that the clothes seemed to be loose slightly but it fitted me nicely. I opened up the sliding door and closed it after me.

I then joined Hiko-sama at the front of the house. He wore a black kimono with matching hakama. And he had the two katana that he had placed on his left obi. He wore a pair of zori while I replaced mine and wore my sandals and tied the straps around my ankles and shin.

My heart was thumping wildly as I walked alongside Hiko-sama as we made our way through some shortcuts in the alleyway that cuts right to the northern gate. About some 15 minutes of brisk walking, we had finally reached the northern gates.

As there was a path that leads to another village some 50 or so kilometres away and an abandoned cemetery some kilometres away from the northern gate, the sentry posts were on high alert as usual.

This path also leads to the authorised duelling grounds who wanted to settle their differences or other what not. This usually ended one party dead while the other heavily wounded.

”Stop where you are. Please state your reasons for exiting through here.” asked a young shogun to Hiko-sama.

”My name is Hiko Seijuro and I wanted to bring my apprentice here to experienced some duels that might be happening around the grounds. I would return in a few hours time.”

”OK Hiro-san, here are two passes. Tie it around your obi and do not lose it. The password for your re-entry is” gokiburi” which means cockroach in English.”

”Thank you. Be seeing you in a while bit.” Hiko-sama then gave one pass to me and I tied it around my obi on the right and then tied the face mask as we walked out from the well-guarded place.

”Be careful as we walked past this turn, once we are out of sight, there would be a lot of people with bad intent. Also, there would be interesting drops off you can manage to get them but mainly from fallen samurai and other warriors. You will be on your own but I stand around to observe. The first few ones you meet would be simple enough for you.”

”So, Hiko-sama's main intention was to bring me out to slaughter these bad people. In case if you are wondering, killing people with bad intent is also a part of training as a Ronin, a Masterless Samurai.” I thought aloud in my head as I moved silently and observed the semi-darkness surroundings.

I held on the handle of the Kodachi firmly in my left hand as I walked among the shadows and observing the surroundings for unnatural movements. Since I have a Third Eye this allows me to be on more alert status. I found a thick stick as we walked along the path and I picked it up. It weighed fairly nice in my hands and it was not rotten one bit at all.

”This could be of some use.” I thought as we turned the corner and soon the northern gates were just a looming silhouette in the cloudy and half crescent moonlight. There was still an abundance of snow and our feet made crunching sounds as we walked on it. This made my white tabi a bit wet from the snow.

Suddenly in the looming shadows ahead, we could make out 2 shadows that were lurking around the tombstones of the cemetery. Either they were grave robbers or simply put to loot some fallen duelist. As we approached, the two figures stopped what they were doing and approached us.

”Give me your passes, your coin pouch and weapons and we were on our way soon. Tell us the password to enter the gates as well!” one of the men hissed and approached us. He was holding to a pike with a fairly large blade that looked like lightning on the end. Later I learnt that it was called a ”Thunder Pike”.

”Ehh... Do you think its simple for you to take our belongings? Why don't you drop yours and we be on our way too.” Hiko-sama replied in a mocking manner.

”Who do you think you are, huh? You don't even know us and yet you acted like a godly warrior. If you want to know who we are, get ready to pee in your hakama. We are the great Thunder Brothers and I am Hiten and my brother here is called Manten. Since you had made the acquaintance, then prepare to die!”

The one who called Hiten was actually a demon in human form. My Third Eye was able to detect its unusual aura of death that surrounds him and his younger brother that looked like a reptilian or a shark that stood behind him.

Hiten was wearing a very elaborate armour, which was near identical to that worn by his brother, although his shoulder pads and other portions of his outfit are orange, whereas Manten's are blue. He wears a white shirt underneath his kimono, which is coloured blue around the collar and shoulder.

Over his kimono was his armour, fitted around his lower torso and padding on top of this. Hiten's shoulder pads are roughly shaped like cogs, with spikes roughly in the shape of the letter ”z”. He also had two pads on his forearms which extend over the top of his hands.

These were bound by grey rings to his arm. On top of the pad on his right arm is an armoured plate, on which a kanji from the name is inscribed, meaning ”heaven” or ”sky”. The two rings encircled his wrist and elbow.

A blue jewel is set on the tip nearest his elbow. The identical plate on his left arm was not connected to his forearm but on his arm and elbow. As with the plate on his right arm, the plate on his left arm also had a jewel set on the tip nearest his elbow, however, it was red and not blue.

He had an extra ring, not connected to the plate, around his left wrist, to match the one on his right. He had an orange coil around his right bicep.

A series of light blue sashes were tied together in bows connected from his shoulder pads to his waist. The ends of this final, waist sash hang down towards his knees. There were two shorter ends, and hanging down from the main knot were two longer ends which pass down beyond his knees.

Tied to his waist sash on either side of his body are two, very long feathers of unknown origin. He wore a dark blue hakama and black shoes, with white trimming around the ankles and grey tabi socks. Hiten wore earrings on both ears. They were gold, double tassels linked to a gold disk, which was joined to the ear and identical to those worn by Manten.

”Hey, are you done admiring the two of us already? It's time to spill some blood! Woohoo...!!” hollered Hiten as he jumped high in the air with his pike raised above his head as he headed down to us.