Muhai charged at Yami with his own sword in hand. Yami flung himself out of the path of the rampaging bull, but Muhai was much faster than Yami, slicing his right quadricep. Catching himself, Yami put his hand on his wound and saw blood begin to soak into his clothes. Using his left hand, Yami sent a shot of flames into his wound, searing it shut.

“He really means it! If I don’t attack him with intent to kill, he’ll kill me for sure! Despite putting a load of life essence into my pants, he still sliced through and made a cut this deep. If I had been wearing my normal clothes, I’d have lost that leg!”

Muhai rushed Yami once again. Yami formed a sphere in his left hand, but before he could parry Muhai, he jerked still. His eyes met Muhai’s, who had no apparent emotion. Yami coughed up blood.

“You think you could kill me with that? You’re throwing away all of your training right now, boy.”

As Muhai’s arms began to feel resistance, he looked down. The tip of the sword was stuck into Yami’s abdomen, which was pouring out blood in response. What caught Muhai’s eyes, however, was Yami’s right hand clutching the blade, holding it in place as it sawed into his fingers.

“My training… My training won’t ever be thrown away! Don’t you dare underestimate my teachers!”

Yami gripped the blade with his left hand, then slowly pulled the sword as well as Muhai out of his abdomen, then launched them across the room with a swift kick to the stomach. Muhai slammed against the opposite wall, causing rubble to collapse on him. As Yami sat on the ground and tried to catch his breath, he looked at his stomach, which was far beyond his medical knowledge. Muhai pulled himself out of the rubble as if it were dust.

“You say that, yet you’re failing me right now...”

Muhai flipped the tip of the blade at Yami.

“And you are well aware of the price you pay for failing!”

Muhai lept at Yami.

“Shit, I have no time to evade, and he can just counter my Sirushi Inochi….”

Taking a deep breath, Yami prepared for the impact. As the sword connected with Yami, blood sprayed and bones crunched. Muhai let out a little smirk. Yami had blocked the sword with his right forearm.

“You dare fight back, you worthless trash?!”

Yami braced his right arm with his left as the blade cut deeper into arm, and it began to slice into his bone. Yami placed life essence on the edge of his left hand and sliced it at Muhai, who dodged the brunt of the attack, but Yami’s hand still caught some of his right bicep. Withdrawing the sword from Yami’s arm, Muhai backed off and licked some blood off of the tip of the blade.

“It’s been awhile since something fought back!”

Yami stood up, blood now pooling around him.

“I have to end this fast… It’s taking everything I have just to stay conscious…”

Yami’s right arm hung against his side limply.

“I shouldn’t use my right arm anymore, either. Anymore stress and it’ll break off.”

Muhai sent Yami’s sword flying into the roof, causing brick and cinder block to fall. Muhai caught these in mid air, then chucked them at Yami. Yami countered the onslaught of bricks with a flurry of punches, destroying dozens of bricks a second. A large cloud of dust filled the room. As Yami took a deep breath through the sleeve of his shirt to avoid breathing in dust, he looked around, but saw nothing in the haze. Within moments, Yami felt the floor tremble beneath him, and Yami reached below him. Muhai leapt through the smokescreen and prepared to slash Yami in half. Yami swung his arm up from the ground, pulling the pulverised remains of the brick with the palm of his hand, causing the fine powder to go into Muhai’s eyes. Muhai quickly vanished back into the dust cloud, allowing Yami some time to inspect his arm. The cut had made it about halfway through his bone, and the amount of blood he was losing was far more than life threatening, let alone the dust settling into his wounds. As the dust cloud settled, Yami looked around and located Muhai, who wielded two swords, one in each hand. Yami’s sword sat upon a pedestal.

“Come get your blade, if you think you can!”

Yami attempted to take a step forward, but nearly fell over as he stumbled. Shaking his head, Muhai sighed.

“I thought you’d be more promising, but I suppose I’ve thought that about a lot of other students.”

Muhai ran at Yami with both swords in hand. As reached a meter within Yami, he raised his right sword as if to skewer Yami’s head. Yami swung his left hand up and attempted to do a palm strike, but Muhai’s physical might was far greater than Yami’s durability. The blade pierced through the bottom of Yami’s palm and out the top of his wrist. Muhai had emotionless eyes as he prepared to slash with the sword in his left hand. Yami raised his right arm, which was now slowly splitting apart. As Muhai swung his blade down, he made sure to hit the same cut as he had made before. The edge of the blade connected with Yami’s bone. Yami poured all of his life essence into his arm, which was slowing the cut, but not stopping it. As the blade slowly sawed through the bone, Yami’s heart began to beat more and more rapidly, and his vision became blurry. A mark slowly began to appear on Yami’s right palm, and his right eye slowly became much darker. Yami shut his eyes as the blade made its way through another quarter of the bone.

“Without this arm, I’m afraid you’ll never pass.”

The blade hit the final millimeter of Yami’s bone. Yami’s breathing slowed as he became calmer. As Yami spoke, it caused the air to condense.

“We’ll see about that.”

The mark on Yami’s palm completed itself. The mark was a thick ring that had been connected to a much thinner ring that surrounded it with smooth curves. Yami opened his eyes. His right eye was black with a jagged red line running down the middle. Muhai’s eyes widened.

“W-What the hell?!”

Steam rose from Yami’s wound as it healed at an accelerated rate. First the skin fused together, then the muscle, then the bone. As the bone healed around the blade, Muhai attempted to pull it out, but it was stuck in it. Successfully pulling the sword out of Yami’s left hand, Muhai lept back and readied himself. With his left hand, Yami gripped the blade of the sword sticking out of his right forearm and withdrew it with a sawing noise. Yami tossed the sword into the air, catching it with his right hand and flicking the tip towards the ground, causing blood to splatter on the floor. Within a flash, Yami appeared behind Muhai and drove his sword at him. Muhai flicked his arm back and blocked the attack. Yami followed up with a knife hand strike with his left hand, but Muhai swiftly turned and grabbed Yami by the wrist, then flung him across the room. Yami caught himself and slid about another 10 feet before completely stopping.

“Are you Haisen?”

Yami grinned and let out a small yet excited chuckle. As Yami sprinted at Muhai, Muhai copied his movements. As Yami prepared to slash at Muhai, Muhai increased his speed even more and prepared to skewer Yami. The tip of the blade connected with the bottom of Yami’s palm, causing the blade to shatter. As the shrapnel sprayed about the room, some hitting Yami and Muhai, Muhai grabbed the edge of the blade and attempted to fling Yami off of it, but to no avail. Yami held onto the hilt, and as he was flung haphazardly behind Muhai, he used his momentum to swing right back into Muhai, landing a kick straight into his side, sending Muhai flying. As Muhai crashed, he picked himself up next to the pedestal which he had set Yami’s sword on.

“I thought I wouldn’t need to use this anymore, but I suppose not…”

Muhai unsheathed the blade and was simultaneously met with Yami’s blade clashing against it. In a struggle to overpower one another, their arms shook and their blade began to creak under the enormous stress. Muhai’s eyes followed as Yami let go of the hilt with his left hand and slowly reached over and gripped the hilt of his own sword. Muhai looked into Yami’s eyes, which were sinister, as Yami tightened his grip on the sword. A stinging pain immediately began to flood Muhai’s body, and out of desperation, he let go of the sword. Gasping for air, Muhai looked up at Yami, who now wielded both swords.

“Now who’s worthless trash?”

Yami raised his swords in the air in preparation for the killing blow. Muhai raised his right arm to block the blow. Yami grinned.

“Damn it… he caught my bluff. This block won’t do anything... “

As Yami flung the swords down at Muhai, he closed his eyes and prepared for the impact. An explosion was heard. As the edges of the blades lodged themselves into Muhai’s arm, Muhai still braced for more, but realized that he may had been saved. Slowly opening his eyes, Muhai confirmed that the two blades were lodged deep inside of his arm. Looking in the sound of the explosion, Muhai noticed a large hole in the wall. Looking in the opposite direction, he saw Jitsubutsu on top of Yami, who was struggling to push Jitsubutsu off of him.

“Muhai! I have him pinned down for now, but I need you to help! Try to keep his feet from kicking anything!”

Muhai flew into action, gripping Yami’s legs with his left arm as if his life depended on it, which it very well did. As Yami continued to struggle, Jitsubutsu gripped his wrists and pinned them to the ground.

“Sorry Yami, but I’m gonna have to drain you.”

Yami continued to struggle, shouting curses and flailing his legs about, but after a few moments, he became unconscious. Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, Jitsubutsu got off of Yami and sat himself on the floor.

“Looks like I made it just in time. For once, it looked like a student was gonna kill you!”

Muhai let go of Yami’s legs and pulled the swords out of his arm. He walked across the room as he spoke to Jitsubutsu.

“I never did care for you demons. You always find a way to mess up my peaceful life.”

Reaching into some rubble, Muhai withdrew the sheath to Yami’s sword, which he properly slid onto the blade. As he started across the room once again, he spoke.

“If there’s something I haven’t wanted to kill more than ever, it’s this kid. Not only is he a demon, he holds the worst one in existence within himself?”

As Muhai finally reached Yami’s sleeping body, he knelt next to him.

“But, he is definitely the best pupil I’ve made. He was treated like a sword, learned to act like a sword, and even beat his master.”

Muhai rested the large sword onto Yami’s chest.

“He is the finest blade ever created.”

The warming sunlight awoke Yami. Slowly fluttering his eyelids open, Yami felt the comfort of sheets covering him. Lifting his head, he realized he was laying in one of Muhai’s rooms that was forbidden from staying in. Pushing the sheets off of him and standing up, Yami nearly fell over due to exhaustion. His muscles had never ached as much in their life as they had now, and he was very dehydrated as well. Limping to the door, he noticed that his sword was leaning against the wall. As he grabbed it, Yami shrunk it back to a pocket knife and put it in his clothes behind him. Opening the door, Yami slowly made his way down the hall to the dojo, where he saw Muhai sitting next to a large hole in the wall. Yami walked over to him, but didn’t know what to say. Noticing he was behind him, Muhai patted his hand on the floor next to him. Yami sat.

“You did well, kid. Don’t take that praise lightly.”

Yami sat and stared at the flurries. The gentle playfulness of the snow calmed him.

“Here.”

Yami looked over and saw Muhai handing him a bowl of soup.

“Well? Eat it.”

Yami reached over without hesitation and quickly scarfed down the warming liquid.

“You’re the first person to pass my lessons. Most couldn’t even make it past the first task, many others failed when they tried to sleep the first night. You should now understand how to use a sword, which you clearly demonstrated in our match.”

“About that…”

Muhai patted Yami on the back.

“Don’t worry about it. That was the first exciting life I’ve had in ages.”

“So now what?”

Muhai looked off into the sky.

“I’m going to retire. I’ve fought many battles, and now I’ve had my second loss. I don’t intend on having anymore.”

“I guess I’ll keep travelling with Jitsubutsu then…”

“Yami, you’re one demon I can respect.”

“Thanks?”

As Yami walked out of the door into the compound, he looked around.

“Sir, where is Jitsubutsu?”

“He left already, said he had to head back.”

“I see… I guess I’ll be off then. Thank you, Sir!”

As Yami walked through the snow down to the mountain trail, Muhai leaned against a wall and folded his arms. As Yami waved just before going out of view, Muhai responded with a nod.

“Yami Shinpai… You are one respectable young man.”

Jitsubutsu and Muhai carried an unconscious Yami down the hall. Sliding open a door, Muhai led Jitsubutsu into the room, and the two sat Yami on the bed. Leaning Yami’s sword against the wall, Muhai and Jitsubutsu walked out and shut the door.

“Hey demon, does that kid have Haisen in him?”

Jitsubutsu spoke with serious tone in his voice.

“Yes. That’s what you say when you fought him. It seems you pushed him to the limit, which allowed him to become possessed.”

Muhai looked down at his right arm, which was still bleeding profusely.

“That kid… I’ve only been this beat up when I fought Haisen with Kyukyoku. He even stole some of my lifespan and added it to his own…”

Jitsubutsu looked at him with intrigue.

“What do you mean?”

“I was wielding his blade, and reached over and sucked life out of me using the blade as a catalyst.”

“I see…”

Muhai stood up from the wall and rubbed the back of his neck.

“I guess I’ll call it a day.”

Knock knock knock

A wooden door swung open, revealing Make’s face. It brightly lit up as she saw her visitor, Yami.

“Yami! You’re done with your training?!”

“Yeah, but I kinda ripped my clothes in the process...”

“If you put some life essence into the tear, it’ll mend itself.”

“Oh. I guess I’ll be off the-”

“Come in!”

Yami followed Make inside and enjoyed a delicious dinner, sat and talked with her, and as night fell, he walked to the room he had been staying in. Laying himself on the bed, he nearly shuddered in comfort as he rested in the soft warmth. A muffled voice travelled through the door.

“Goodnight, Yami!”

“Goodnight,” Yami replied!

As Yami shut his eyelids, he drifted into a deep sleep.