"To be a master you must meet failure many times." -Hachimura Clypeus

I decided to show them my singularity, the only person that has ever seen has been Shizuka all along; we all exited the mansion to go in the backyard where there could be more space and light.

“Is it dangerous?” Asked Sachi.

“No, it’s not dangerous, if anything I just came out here because I hate being inside all the time.”

“Oh ok. So, what is it?” I slightly moved away from the girls and said,

“Spirit Daisho.” Ancient writing starting circling me, a big belt strap appeared around my waist, and attached to the belt strap there were three different weapons.

“My singularity’s name is spirit daisho, I get equipped with a belt with three different swords.” Sachi looked at me and said,

“Really?! That’s so cool!” I sheath the smallest blade out, it had a beautiful design of a wolf in the handle; the blade was a shining white, as it represented my soul.

“Starting off with the smallest blade, it’s called a ‘tanto,’ which is a knife. The blade is double-edged with a length of 18 cm (7 inches) The tanto is designed primarily as a stabbing/piercing weapon, but the edge can be used for slashing as well.” I looked around, and they were all surprised except Shizuka since she has already seen my singularity. “The second blade is a wakizashi.” I sheath the medium length blade. “the wakizashi has a blade of 40 cm” (16 inches) it also had a wolf design on the handle, but this time it was two of them playing around with each other.

“Can I hold it?!” Asked Sachi. But the problem with my blades is that they can’t be held by anyone because if they do then they will-… as I looked up, Sachi was dead asleep on the floor with my wakizashi in hand. Kasai Jumped and tried helping her up.

“If someone that’s not me holds the spirit daisho, then they will faint, the blades only are willing to be wielded by my soul, but don’t worry she will be up soon, it just shortly drains your spiritual energy.” But then, out of curiosity, Kasai pointed at my Katana, the biggest and most important sword. “Oh, this? I haven’t been able to sheath it out yet… I don’t know. Maybe my spiritual energy isn’t strong enough.” Kasai looked at me with a confused face. Then, since Shizuka knew everything from her wisdom world, she decided to explain it to Kasai.

“You see Kasai, there’s a reason why the blades are shining white.” You know, sometimes Wisdom-World helps explaining more than you actually know…

“When I first showed the Spirit Daisho to Shizuka the first thing she did was scan it with Wisdom-World, and one of the information given to her was that the blades are shining white because they represent the users’ soul, the stronger my soul is, the stronger the blades are; to better my soul what I got to do is meditate and have a clear and strong focus on myself, I basically can’t lose my own self-control.” At that moment, Sachi woke up, then asked,

“W-wait, so this is a hybrid singularity?”

“Yes! And good morning.”

“Heh- sorry, I should have paid more attention to what you were saying.” Kasai looked confused, Shizuka turned towards her and said,

“A hybrid singularity is something that is both materialistic and spiritual, it used spiritual as energy, and the materialistic side as the shell since you can’t see spiritual singularities.”

“Wow, you both are powerful magic users.” Said Sachi.

“I haven’t shown anybody my S.S yet.” Said Shizuka with a grin. That’s right, time after time I’ve tried to convince her into telling me, but she still won’t tell me what her S.S is…

“Oh, that’s right! Can I see?! Pleaseeee!”

“Why are you so interested in knowing our singularities?” Asked Shizuka.

Yeah, not a chance that Shizuka shows her spiritual singularity.

“Well, it has always impressed me of how many cool singularities exist, and with your Wisdom-World being so cool, I can’t imagine of what your spiritual singularity is capable of, you’re just sooo cool Shizuka!”

“Oh...” She slightly blushed and grinned. “Then I guess it can’t be helped. I’ll show you.” WHAT?! She got persuaded so easily! I rushed towards Shizuka and covered her mouth.

“Hehehe, sorry Sachi, that’s enough; you see, our parents said not to tell anybody, and it’s already an overstep telling you.”

“Ah… alright. Well, thank you for having me here! I just wanted to pass by to warn you about black tombstone just in case you knew magic.”

“Thank you Sachi, we owe you one.”

“No, it’s fine, this was just as a courtesy, bye-bye!” She turned away and left the mansion. I turned towards Shizuka and asked,

“How about you tell me your spiritual singularity?!”

“Hey, I want to master it before I show you!”

“Why?”

“So I don’t disappoint yo-” She stopped herself, blushed and looked away.

“You? Disappoint me?” I laughed. “There is no way such a prestigious girl like you could disappoint anybody, Shizuka.”

“Maybe I’m not as great as you think…” At this point I thought she was just joking, there is no way she thinks low of herself when every guy in our school has asked her out. She also gets compliments left and right.

“Ha-ha, nice joke. Now,” I looked at Kasai and said, “How about we start planning our trip for tomorrow, huh Kasai?” She started smiling and nodded.

“Kasai and I will go to my room to talk. I’ll catch you later Shizuka!”

“Oh, ok…”

we walked inside the mansion and started heading to my room.

“I think I still have my map.” We arrived at my room, and I started looking through the bookshelf to find what I needed. “Ah, here it is!” We both sat on the floor, and I spread the map, she started looking at the map with a curious look on her face.

“We live in a continent which is also its own country called ‘Greenterra’ in a province called ‘Phoenix,’ it’s right here, north-east from the center of the country.” (When imagining the size of Greenterra think of the size of Russia) out of nowhere, I heard,

“Wow… such a giant world.” I’ve heard this sweet calming voice since I woke up, at first, I thought that Kasai was talking, but now I was looking at her, and she didn’t even move her lips, even though the voice I heard seemed to be a reaction to the map.

“Kasai, did you just say something?” she turned towards me and shook her head. “That’s so weird… I’ve heard this voice in my head for a while.” I looked at Kasai while she was still scanning the map. Every time I’m with her. I hear that voice.

I tried to concentrate as much as I could on my thoughts and said this word in my head, ‘Kasai?’ She stopped looking at the map and looked at me in the eyes. I was shook.

N-no way, there’s no way that is happening! Just to make sure, I focused again and looked into her eyes and thought, ‘Can you hear me?’ she nodded with a perplexed expression; there is really no way that we can use telepathy with each other. “Ok Kasai, I want you to focus on your thoughts and try to communicate with me.” She seemed even more confused as if I just explained to her the theory of relativity; then, I soon heard my name. ‘Rukito?’

“Yes! So, it was your voice all along!” She instantly rushed to me and hugged me with a big smile.

“You can hear me?!” I started chuckling and said,

“I have no idea how but yes, I can hear what you’re thinking time-to-time.”

“Finally! There are so many things I’ve wanted to tell you!” She wrapped her arms around me even tighter than before, I could feel her whole chest on me, yes, it was nice, but I like my oxygen.

“K-Kasai-” she released me and started blushing while playing with her hair.

“Oh, uhm, sorry I’m just really happy that someone can finally hear me, especially with the fact that it’s you, the best person I’ve ever met!” I chuckled. Well, she is straight up. Afterward, I said,

“You know, you have a soothing voice, I expected more of a high pitch voice like Shizuka.”

“Thank you so much. I appreciate your compliment!” She bowed her head. Well, she is also very polite. It’s strange that being mute can vastly decrease your sense of a unique personality. Talking about personality… while she was bowing her head, I looked at her cleavage and thought to myself that she is growing a bigger cup size every other day, that bra is barely fitting on her anymore, and Shizuka is a C cup… don’t ask me how I know. She looked up, slightly covered her chest while blushing and looking away. THAT’S RIGHT, SHE CAN HEAR ME!

“You know, you’re the only person I don’t mind having it with, if you really want to, we-” SHE IS TOO STRAIGHT UP!

“No, no! I’m waiting for marriage… it’s a challenge of self-control and training for my spirit daisho to pull my katana from the sheath.” Who am I kidding, she is burning hot, I wish I could just—she suddenly started giggling and crawling slowly towards me with a smug on her face.

“You’re not fooling me; I can hear your real intentions.” Maybe I liked her more when she was silent.

“I- you- we- can’t-” I could barely speak, I felt my cheeks burning hot, this is the first time a girl and I are alone in a room talking about perverted things.

She got so close to the point that my leg was in between hers. She suddenly blinked and changed to a clueless expression.

“Huh?” She jumped back while blushing. “Oh, sorry; I let myself go a bit there.” She also started giggling “I was just teasing though, don’t worry.” This time I tried to stop focusing so much on communicating with her and thought that she sure as hell didn’t seem like she was just teasing. I took a deep breath and said,

“Right now, there are more important things to worry about, like getting your voice back, and finding the king to tell him about black tombstones and their intentions.” She looked at me with a genuine expression and sighed while holding her head,

“Right. Sorry Rukito, I don’t know what came upon me.” Welp, there goes my innocent image of her; I thought she was just a naïve little girl, boy was I wrong.

“Wait, not too long ago you were too shy even to touch me, what happened to that?”

“Oh… well, the reason was that… I almost got…” She looked away. She was struggling to even think about what to tell me.

“Rukito… I’m scared.”

“Huh? W-what do you mean?” Scared? What should she be afraid of? “Is it black tombstone?” The smile wiped off her face.

“No… I could care less about them…” It was as if I could see the emotions running through her, the rain of sadness and sorrow of her past was storming inside of her mind.

I can usually understand people in general… but Kasai, I have a feeling that I can understand her without problems at all. She looked at me with sadness and thought,

“it’s more about my past, I’ve done some terrible things that I’m not comfortable telling you; if I tell you about them you won’t look at me the same way, maybe you would even go to the point of disliking me.” I started worrying, not about anything drastic, but more about her.

“Hey, feel free to tell me anything. I’m here to help.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She quickly changed to a smile; it seemed as if our memories together so far rushed through her head. She slowly crawled back to me again, but this time she gave me a genuine hug while smiling. “You have helped me more than enough already, and I thank you for that, without you I would have probably been dead by now.” My heart skipped a beat, her words of gratitude really struck me, I’ve never heard someone say ‘thank you’ a more meaningful and heartfelt way than that, I had this dumb smile on my face while I was blushing for a while, but her saying that she would have been dead without me seemed a bit of a stretch… then again, I don’t know what she has been through, and she doesn’t look comfortable talking about it yet, so I will respect her decision and let her choose the moment to tell me.

“You’re welcome…” I was about to get emotional, but I smiled and hugged her back. “But this isn’t free, you owe me some good time after we heal your voice!” She jumped back and thought,

“W-What do you mean?!”

“Ahahaha!” I chuckled. “See? I was also just teasing.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! Only I can!”

“Huuh?! You think you’re special?!”

“Better than you!”

“Oooh really?! I jumped at her and started tickling her.”

“W-Wait how do you know I am ticklish!” And of course, right at that moment when I’m top of Kasai, the door opens, my heart drops, and I hear Shizuka saying while opening the door,

“Hey Rukito, I thought about and sure, I’ll go with you tomorrow to the cl-….”

I slowly turned my head back, wishing this was a dream or wishing that I had a teleportation singularity instead of the spirit daisho, but no, reality is a bitch.

“Oh… I see you two are getting closer and closer each day.”

“Shizuka this is not wh-”

“Just lock the door tomorrow, because I’m sure next time you will be both naked, and I don’t want to see that.” She had an interesting expression, it wasn’t anger, but it also wasn’t jealousy, it was like a mix of sad, mad, and disappointment.

“What?” Her voice started getting shaky as if she was about to start crying.

“Just be ready tomorrow to leave!” She walked away and closed the door.

I really have done it now… I hurt her feelings.

“What’s her problem? She is acting as if she was your girlfriend.” I sighed, got up and told Kasai,

“She doesn’t need to be my girlfriend to be in love with me…” I knew that she went to her room to silently cry to herself, but if I chased her it would have made it even worse, she is not the type of girl to listen when her emotions are overwhelming her. I turned to Kasai and said, “Let’s continue planning our trip.”

We spent most of the day planning where we would go, where we would stop, sleep, eat, and maybe even visit. We had a ton of fun planning the trip out, but it’s not a vacation, we have to find a cloud elf that has good healing magic, and then the king to tell him about black tombstone. It was 6:30 PM. I told Kasai that I had to go behind the mansions for my classes.

“What classes?”

“Every other day I have to train with my master, he is the one that has taught me how to use my spirit daisho.”

“Can I come too?” I hesitate to answer, I know that she is not an innocent little girl anymore, but she doesn’t look like she is a fighter what so ever, so I thought that it was probably not a good idea to let her in a combat area where anything could happen, and she could get hurt.

“Trust me, I won’t get hurt; I appreciate your concern though.” She thought while smiling. Right, she can hear my thoughts after all. I have to focus on not trying to communicate with her while I think.

“Kasai, how about you start getting things ready for tomorrow instead? So when I come back and shower, we could just play something before going to bed, or maybe we could watch that series that you really liked.”

“Oh! That’s right!” She started getting excited and continued, “Ok, I’ll start getting our things ready then.” I smiled and walked off towards the back of the mansion. It was starting to get dark outside, for some reason the sky was more cloudy than usual, I guessed it was about to rain pretty soon.

When I arrived there, my teacher was waiting for me, he was wearing some generic clothing, but he had green hair and black eyes, he wears glasses, and had an orange headband which I thought made him look 100 times cooler, he is about 19 years old. He was holding his katana with his right hand and said,

“You’re late.” He seemed a bit disappointed.

“Sorry, Hachimura. Kasai and I were a bit busy.”

“Hm, that’s the new young lady, right? The one that arrived two weeks ago?”

“Yes” I’m surprised he still didn’t remember her, he has a bad memory after all.

“So, you’ve been trying to hit on her huh?” He smirked. “Nothing less expected from my pupil.” He walked towards me and gave me a strong pat on the back. “First you got lady Shizuka, then the new student you told me about, and now that beautiful gal?! Boy am I proud of how far you have gotten!”

“Uhm… sure. Apparently out of nowhere when I start getting serious about school and focusing on my singularity, life decides to throw me drama. Not cool life… not cool.” Suddenly, my master changed his facial expression to a serious one.

“Rukito… I’ve said this countless time before, so remember!”

“Listen, I know what you’re about to sa-”

“You can’t get distracted with anything else that’s not your primary goal; don’t let other people’s problems affect your life.”

“Oh wow, you’re actually not saying what I thought you would have said-”

“Anything except women!” He started laughing.

“Yup, there it is.” He pats me on the head and said,

“This may sound cheesy but, just remember that if you have to make a choice one day between any women, always choose the one you see having a future with, the one you see living with for the rest of your life without any problems, and the one that has the best bod- I mean, the one that makes you the happiest when you’re together.”

“W-what do you mean?” He sighed and sat down on the bench, tapping the side to signal me to sit down with him. I sat beside him and opened my ears; this is very important to solve my problem. I know we are supposed to be training, but he gets off task very quickly, and this is too important for me to remind him about the training.

“When you are with ‘the one’ you will feel love. By that, I mean analyze which one you enjoy being around the most, which one makes you smile the most. Don’t think too hard about them; think about yourself.

“Huh… I never thought of it that way.”

“That’s how I choose between my fiancé and my other friend!” He said while smiling.

“You’re getting married?!” I can’t believe a perv like him found his girl!

“Yes, and I had to choose between two girls, I was really struggling because they were both hot and cute, and they both seemed to love me the same amount, but I never thought about myself, and who I enjoy being around the most. After I did, I realized it and ended up with my current fiancé, and I don’t regret it at all! She is amazing.”

“What about the other girl?”

“Well… she didn’t take it too well. But hey! I’m sure she will find someone else.”

“Huh” Think about myself? I was so worried about how they would feel so much that I didn’t think about how I feel. Who do I have the most fun with?...

“Pro tip; you could also stay quiet and sauce all of them.”

“That’s what I’m trying to avoid… I don’t like being that kind of guy.” I instantly imagined Shizuka crying in her room. “If I don’t establish who I’m with then some girls might get hurt.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Well, from this point on just think about it; which girl gives you the butterflies in the stomach? Which one makes your heart forget it has to beat?”

“Wow, you’re pretty romantic under that lewd persona.” He raised his shoulders and said,

“What can I say? I’m the perfect mix between both!” He smiled and continued saying. “If these young ladies are equally amazing, it probably might never feel like the ‘right’ choice, but ultimately, you will need to decide if you want to keep either of them because they will get impatient and find someone else.” He is much wiser about women than I thought he actually was… “The honest road can be the hardest road, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. Ask yourself which girl you'd most regret letting go.”

“Yeah… you’re right.” I sighed and said, “Well thank you, that will help me a great deal. Now can we start the training?”

“Riiiight!”

“Riiight!” We both stood up and faced each other. “Did you set up your singularity? I kinda don’t want to get my limbs chopped off.”

“Ahahaha, of course, I did!” Hachimura’s S.S (Guardian Angel) is a barrier around a person that blocks anything to make contact with the skin, (He has a spiritual singularity because he is in the military) he told me that he developed that specific singularity because he used to protect his bullied classmates when he was a kid, so everyone kept calling him the guardian angel. The drawback is that he can’t cover the head, because if he did, then I wouldn’t be able to breathe because not even wind passes through the barrier, so we just use a helmet. And he also can only cover him and one more other person.

“Remember Rukito, no aiming for the head.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” We always do a duel at the beginning to see how much I’ve improved. Of course, he still wins but… At least I get some points. Every time my blade touches his barrier, I get one point, and when he lands a slice, he gets the point.

“Alright, here I go!” He started swinging his katana against me, but since I still couldn’t pull mine, I double-wielded my tanto and wakizashi. I began to block and parry some of his swings, the sounds of our blades clashing were unique since my blades weren’t made out of metal, so it kind of sounded like hitting a sharp sword on fresh snow.

After just some seconds he managed to slide a slice on my left side of my torso and got the point on me.

“Uuuu, a vital spot, you seem a bit sloppy today. And I see you still haven’t managed to pull that sword Arthur.” He started saying while we were still clashing.

“Don’t compare me to that fictional character! He needed physical strength, I need mental and spiritual strength.”

“Well, maybe it’s because you haven’t chosen a girl yet.” Huh?! That’s right! That might be why! As I was a bit shocked at how obvious the answer was, he managed to get another hit on me. “Hey! What the hell?!”

“The opponent isn’t going to wait for your internal monologue in the middle of a battle!”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Then, out of nowhere, he changed his expression into a surprised/worried face and yelled,

“RUKITO!” He shoved me to the side as fast as he could and parried a sword that was going straight for my throat behind me. I was on the floor at the side, and I looked up, there was a hooded person with a long black coat clashing against my master. “Who are you?!”

The stranger stayed quiet, but then instantly my master kicked him while they were clashing, and he fell onto the floor.

“Surrender! I can see that you’re a newbie just by how you swing your sword!” I was still processing what was happening, but that’s when it hit me that this person was one of those people that Sachi was talking about, Black Tombstone.

“Master! He is part of that group of criminals that everyone has been talking about!”

“Black tombstone?”

“Yes!” He walked up to the person now on the floor, kicked his sword away, stepped on his chest and removed his hood with his sword. It was a middle-aged man with brown hair. He had an emotionless expression, I thought it was weird since he was in a pinch.

“Surrender now!” The person smiled and with his left hand picked up dirt and threw it at my master’s eyes. “Gah! You dishonorable punk!” He jumped back and tried to remove the dirt out of his eyes. The person picked up his sword and then launched himself at my master, luckily, I reacted in time, got up and blocked his sword with my arm, since I still had the barrier, I was able to block it no problem. I got my sword and was ready to swing at him… but I hesitated, I never tried to kill anybody before, so it was a weird sensation I had.

“No Rukito! Don’t kill him, we could use him for information!” Said my master while still trying to get the dirt off his eyes. One big thing about my master is that he never really tries to kill anybody, he always tries to capture them instead or force them to surrender, he’s always been a bit too caring for people’s lives, and since we are in a golden age there hasn’t been a war that has forced him to kill anyone, he has only had to deal with dumb criminals or drunk men. The person moved left and right, he started maneuvering around me to find an open spot to my neck, when he did, he launched at me, faked his attack and actually pulled out another sword from his left side and went straight for my neck, there was no way I could parry that in time, and my master was still blind… I really thought that was it for me, I flinched and closed my eyes at the face of death, but then, I heard a fast, sharp slice, I opened my eyes and blood was spilling out from the person’s back of the neck, he started gargling on his own blood and fell to the ground.

“R-Rukito?! D-Did you kill him?!” When I fully realize, besides the person on the ground bleeding, was Kasai kneeled on the ground holding a dagger, with a face that showed no emotions.

“K-Kasai?” She turned back towards the person on the ground and stabbed him straight on the top of the head, piercing his brain and instantly killing him. Blood was spilling all over his face, filling it completely crimson. A million question ran through my head, but this was no time to think about it. She sighed, closed his eyes and thought,

“You may leave this place at peace.” I was confused…

“Rukito! DID HE DIE?!”

“H-Huh? Y-Yes!”

“THEN GET AWAY FROM HIM!” I instantly grabbed Kasai’s arm and ran away with my master, after just a couple second the person’s body exploded, his whole body got incinerated by the explosion. The grass was on fire.

“Kasai! Get the fire hydrant!” She rushed to get one. I took a deep breath and asked, “Master, how did you know he was going to explode?”

“I’m wondering how the hell did this dirt get into my eyes when I have glasses.”

“Don’t dodge my question!”

“Rukito, my M.S are these glasses.”

“Huh?”

“They basically grant me x-ray vision.”

“So, you could see me naked?!”

“Well not really, I can only see the inside, like muscle tissues and the skeleton. I wish it were just clothing…”

“And you managed to see the bomb in him.”

“Yes, that’s also part of the reason I didn’t want you to kill him.” Kasai came back and started to extinguish the fire. I started thinking about what just happened, Kasai just killed someone with ease and no hesitation…

After Kasai extinguished the fire, Hachimura took the dirt off his eyes, and I got my shit together, we sat on the back porch to talk about what just happened. My master turned to us and asked,

“Are you both ok?”

“Yeah, I’m ok.” And Kasai nodded, she seemed a bit sad though, she did kill someone after all, but then I heard,

“I hope Rukito doesn’t think of me as a monster now…” Wait, so she isn’t sad about the kill?!

“She doesn’t talk much does she?”

“Oh, she’s mute.”

“Oh! I apologize.”

“You kids should talk about what happened to your parents, if they know that you know magic, they will not stop coming.”

“Yes, you’re right.” He looked at Kasai with a concerned look, then looked at me and said,

“Rukito, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Uh, sure thing.” We walked off.

“That girl…”

“Don’t you touch her you perv.”

“No, no! It’s not that, she is very hot and everything but… I’m concerned about something else.”

“That she just killed someone? Yeah, I realized that. I’m as much concerned for her as you are.”

“No, no, not just that. I managed to clean one of my eyes before she killed him, I managed to get a glance at her, and she was 50 meters away from the target, but in the blink of an eye she managed to cut him right behind his neck with an extreme precision, and at that speed is almost impossible being that precise, I also saw a red trail behind her dagger while she was dashing. And at that young age, killing someone without a single look of concern… actually worries me.” I understood his feelings, and I thought she was just a little innocent girl when I first met her.

“Oh…” She did say she didn’t want to talk to me about her past… maybe this is why… I need to talk to her after this, I need to know what she has gone through. “Don’t worry Hachimura, I’ll talk to her.” He put his hand on my shoulder and said,

“Ok, well I’m going to leave, watch out, be safe ok?”

“Of course, you too.”

“Ain’t nothing beating this guy right here!”

“Sure, Sure.” I walked back to where Kasai was.

“Hey K-” As I look at her, she was crying and sobbing while hugging her knees at the side of the back porch. I slowly walked up to her and asked, “Hey, What’s wrong?” Dumb question, but I know that she is not crying because she killed that person. Then, I heard her voice in my head saying,

“I didn’t want you to see this side of me…” I changed my expression to a serious one, walked up to her and sat beside her. “I’m ugly inside. I’m a monster that no one likes.”

“Can you explain to me what has happened to you?”

“…” When I first saw her, I could see all the problems she had on top of her, but I didn’t know what it was, I was always curious to ask, but I didn’t want to bring her past, I rather focused on making her happier instead of talking about the past, but now, we have to talk about the problem at hand.

“Please?...” She gently laid her head on my shoulder, and I started to see flashbacks.