“Rolo, thank you for this information. I’m leaving now, that is a spiritual pressure pill containing medicinal nature, it should be able to heal your injuries.” Before Rolo could thank him, Kiso’s body flickered as he disappeared.

Chapter Ten –

Yuni was leaning up against Kiso’s meditation boulder waiting for him to return with an impatient look on her face. She wasn’t worried about him, as she has been the closest one to Kiso these past four years and knew his power all too well. Her patience was just about to run out when the space in front of her distorted and Kiso appeared.

A solemn look on his face, Kiso frowned deeply as he reported, “Yuni, we’ve been here long enough, the situation in the valley is grim…” Kiso proceeded to tell Yuni everything Rolo had just informed him of.

“….” Yuni couldn’t even think of anything to say. The fire in her heart was still burning with desire for revenge and just now it grew ten fold. All her friends and family, all Kiso’s friends and family, most likely dead. “It’s not fair..” She finally said.

“Yuni, we need to thank Elder Sage for everything he’s done for us, then head out immediately.” Kiso had an excuse to remain training all this time when he thought he was simply protecting himself, but now he felt a serious responsibility to avenge his fallen clan members.

Nodding, Yuni followed Kiso as he began walking towards Koho’s gigantic ancient body.

Just as Kiso walked in, Elder Sage was already waiting, standing at that same window, a look of deep sorrow on his face.

Kiso forced a smile and bowed slightly as Yuni walked up beside him and did the same. He then proceeded to report the situation back home and their plans of immediate vengeance.

“So, those insufferable Ichi bastards finally made their move huh, that old bastard Jorgan really did stay around, his vision is far too narrow.” Elder Sage had been at odd ends with the founder of the Ichi clan since they first met centuries ago. Nobody else but Jorgan would have the power to overthrow even the remnants of the Thunderblack clan.

Elder Sage had been able to leave his clan in capable hands originally, but with Mord’s death the clan finally met calamity. Sighing, he turned around to face Kiso and Yuni, “You two, I’ll miss your company. I’ve taught you everything I have to offer, but before you leave, I’d like you to both touch hands with Koho.”

Kiso raised an eyebrow, he knew what touching hands with Koho represented. It would link their spirits and Koho would be able to tell if either of them had perished. “It seems this old man really cares about us, he even wants to go seek revenge if we get ourselves killed, haha.” Kiso’s heart warmed up as he thought to himself.

The two of them immediately walked over to Koho, who had a strange expression on her face. She had grown close to Yuni over the past few years and didn’t want to see her leave. Regardless, she knew she couldn’t change their minds, so she smiled bitterly and lifted her palms into the air facing away from herself.

“Just hold your hands to mine, one at a time, just a few seconds each.” Koho instructed them as Yuni walked up, placing her own hands on Koho’s.

Inside Yuni’s mind, “Yuni, I’m going to perform a spirit link with you right now, but I am still worried about you, so I’ll give you a little something extra as well.” Koho’s voice was solemn and filled with uneasiness.

Yuni only felt a searing hot string of energy dash through her arms into her core where the energy took the shape of a flaming arrow.

“What’s this?” Yuni sent a mental message back to Koho.

“This is a Soul Piercing Arrow. I only have enough energy to give you one, but it is extremely powerful. The Soul Piercing Arrow disregards physical bodies and penetrates straight into the mind, where the soul is located. Although you are powerful for your age, and have Kiso with you, if you ever leave the Thunderblack Valley and encounter some of the truly powerful people out there, it will serve as a powerful last resort.” Koho replied in Yuni’s mind.

Koho and Yuni were like mother and daughter, although a Soul Piercing Arrow took Koho almost half of her soul energy to produce, to her, it was well worth it.

“Thank you Koho, I’ll come back and visit you for sure, so don’t go anywhere!” Yuni teased, as she knew Koho was incapable of moving.

“One more thing Yuni,” Koho’s face lightened and a warm teasing smile graced her beautiful face, ” you need to let that little punk Kiso know how you feel. You’ve been complacent long enough. When you were younger, I considered perhaps your feeling were shallow and without true bearing. However, over the past few years, your mind would have changed if that was the case, yet I can still see the love in your eyes when you look at him. If you leave it up to him, perhaps another girl will snatch him away while your not looking.”

Yuni has matured a great deal over the last four years, and her former petite cute self, has almost completely matured. She had curves in all the right places and her beauty has clearly risen several levels.

After hearing Koho’s words in her mind, she entire face turned beat red as she quickly dropped her face to stare at the floor, attempting to hide her blushing face.

Kiso took note of Yuni’s strange behavior and sighed to himself, “These two sure like to meddle, how could I truly be ignorant of their schemes…” He already knew they were likely saying their goodbyes, including a certain few words of advice from Koho which would explain Yuni’s current awkwardness.

It’s not that Kiso disliked Yuni, her personality, along with her earth shattering good looks, have come a long way since they first met. If he had to say one way or the other, he’d say that rather then dislike, he really did carry strong feeling towards her.

However Kiso’s willpower and maturity were far beyond his years and he recognized they were still very young. An intimate relationship was something he was in no hurry to press towards.

Shaking his head to himself slightly, Kiso walked forward after Yuni finished to accept Koho’s spirit link.

Koho stared deep into Kiso’s eyes as he extended his hands towards her own. As he hands finally reached her own, a strange light flashed through her eyes and an odd, dull energy slowly entered Kiso’s body.

Just as Kiso was startled and was going to pull his hands away, a voice rang in his mind, “Don’t pull away, Koho is transferring you something special.” Elder Sage’s warning stilled Kiso’s worry.

He continued, “What Kiso is transferring you, is the spirit energy of an infant spiritual beast. When your own spirit power reaches a certain level, you will be able to materialize this infant spirit beast. The spiritual beast you materialize will depend on yourself, it could be a useless lizard or a mighty dragon. This sort of spiritual beast energy is unique, and I only found it by chance, however I could never hope to reach the energy level required to materialize it. So, I will give it to you, perhaps one day it will remind you of me and you might be considerate enough to pay an old man a visit.”

Kiso’s eyes suddenly reddened and teared up. Never before has Kiso felt this emotion, not even when he thought he parents might possibly be dead.

Elder Sage had basically treated Kiso like his own son the past four years. Not just that, but they also shared a student-teacher relationship, further deepening their bond.

Upon hearing Elder Sage’s words, Kiso suddenly felt a strong desire to stay behind, yet he knew there was nothing left here for him to learn. If there was nothing left to learn, that was still not enough reason to part with the old man he had come to respect the most in the world, but now an inextinguishable fire was lit in his heart. A fire born from rage and vengeance.

“Elder Sage, I….” Kiso started to speak, but suddenly changed his mind, “I’ll miss you, I know your working on something special with Koho, perhaps if you can finally complete it, you will be the one coming and looking for me!” Kiso pulled his hands away after Koho gave him a nod, then bowed at the waist as far as he could towards him.

A single drop of water hit the floor of the room, after which Kiso straightened his back, turned, and left with Yuni.

– – – – –

The day is fading and autumn leaves are blowing across the Byuki grasslands. Autumn in the Thunderblack valley is a very cool and pleasant temperature.

Kiso and Yuni had decided to travel on foot, and left the forest several days ago.

They have been traveling slowly, while asking around for information in the various villages they passed, en route to Thunderblack Castle.

“Kiso, I can’t stand it. The looks these villagers give us are full of scorn and defiance. It seems the Ichi clan has truly taken over the entire valley!” Yuni pouted as a village faded into the distance at their backs.

Just as Kiso was about to laugh and console Yuni, a strange scene came into view.

A few hundred meters further along the road, a group of dark cloaked men were standing in a circle around a bloody corpse on the ground.

Kiso recognized the cloaks the men were wearing to be that of the Ichi clan, as Nak had been wearing the same exact one.

Kiso immediately spread out his spiritual pressure to discover the corpse on the ground was that of a female, and she was still alive, if just barely.

Standing above that bloody girl clinging to life, the captain of this Ichi squad, Ugo, wore an evil grim full of malice. “Little Thunderblack girl, did you truly think you could save your parents? The Thunderblack clan is finished, your life is over, I may have granted you a swift death had you not acted against my Ichi clan!”

The second Ugo finished speaking, among the laughs and taunts of his companions, he gathered spiritual pressure, materializing a large boulder capable of easily crushing the powerless girl.

The boulder held itself in the air for a few moments while the girl stared up at it, tears running down her cheeks. She was a victim of the valley invasion. Her parents had hid her away during the raid on her village a few months ago and had been captured in the process. She felt an unimaginable amount of grief and regret as she heard her parents pleading for their lives before they were ultimately knocked out and dragged away. After learning where her parents had been taken, she mustered what was left of her willpower and infiltrated the prison camp in an attempt to rescue them. What she found however, were only corpses, her parents had been beheaded among hundreds of other Thunderblack clansmen.

The sight of her headless parents drove her mad with grief and she immediately was discovered as she could not contain herself from crying out. The Ichi squad in charge of the prison camp was a particularly sinister one, and decided to play with her, allowing her to run, while they chased and occasionally shot small rocks at her, leaving her skin bruised and her bones fractured.

Now, after having finally succumbed to the relentless torture of pursuit, she could only stare up at the boulder above her, as her soul screamed out for someone to save her. Even if her desire to live was weak after the death of her parents, it was not dead, and she greatly wished to avenge them.

And so she mustered all her remaining strength to cry out, “YOU BASTARDS! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THEIR IS NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD AND YOU SHALL SURELY HAVE YOURS!”

Having vented her grief, she prepared herself for the next world, and tightly clenched her eyes, still unwilling to die.

The words of the girl startled Kiso, he had thought she was beyond saving. He was already planning to avenge her as she was obviously a member of his clan, but her cry out was like a slap to his face.

Kiso gathered his spiritual pressure into all five finger tips, each one aiming at a different target.

The boulder began to fall, but before it could even drop half the distance to the girl, a flash of black light struck against the boulder, instantly vaporizing it.

The girl, who had been expecting certain death, suddenly felt a fine powder cover her body. The next thing she heard shocked her eyes open, as four thuds coming from where the men had previously been, rang in her ears.

To Be Continued!