Sachihiro

I have two months of time with my new Master before I have to leave for home for an undetermined amount of time and we don't waste it. I don't see Ragnar or Silo anymore but apparently a person that goes through the Awakening is sequestered here and provided with mana stones as a fuel source so they can go through the Awakening all in one go, regardless of how long that takes. At least those that want to Awaken in the new way similar to how Master Zaraya does.

Silo on the other hand I recently learnt is attached to Ragnar on the hip and where Ragnar goes you can bet Silo is sitting outside the door waiting for him to come out. I don't really get it but apparently Silo was a slave and had no one and nothing, Ragnar saved his life and gave him a rune brand that freed him from his slave bindings. They have been inseparable ever since and so by default anyone that trains Ragnar trains Silo in most cases.

I meet Master Zaraya's other three disciples, my fellow disciples now Lucas, Inam and Samantha. Lucas is just a normal guy who seems to be the stereotype of a young Prince, everything Brand isn't actually.

He is confident, diligent, loved by females, proud, authoritative, educated, charming and seemingly sincere. But he is a prince without a kingdom since his has been conquered by another bigger kingdom and the entire royal family scattered or used as figure heads to control the people.

I don't really sympathise and think his people are stupid to be controlled by a person they know is being controlled by invaders, in the Tundra that chief would have been challenged and killed long ago. But that's just my 'barbarian' opinion, I've been meaning to read up on different forms of governance anyway but I got distracted by the book on gemstones I found tucked away in the upper floors of the library.

Inam is an Dawn elf and because of that I initially didn't like him on principal. Dawn elves are darker skinned than the rest of elven kind and are apparently looked down upon as the lowest form of elf by all the other elves, at least lowest form not considering the drow elves.

Despite initially keeping my distance I got to know him a little bit and to my utter frustration and Ava's derision I actually like the man. Enough to invite him and the rest of the other disciples to the tribes drinking hole come dusk, they initially weren't well received but Inam proved he can stand his own in a fist fight so now everyone just mostly ignores him.

Dawn elves look closer to the ebony skinned Nubian people I've met on occasion as opposed to the rest of the lighter hued elves, looking down on an entire people because of the colour of their skin is one of the dumber ideas I've been introduced to in the wider world but it happens.

"Your people betrayed us to the Sandorians," I tell Inam who shrugs unapologetically.

"My people have their own concerns."

Apparently the dawn elves betrayed us out of desperation as dawn elves the world over are a dying breed, hunted by the rest of elven kind, used as slaves and generally downtrodden. I have very little sympathy for that either, not after seeing what their betrayal led to but on an individual level I definitely like Inam.

"Hi, I'm Sam."

Sam is another story, the very definition of a noncombatant with her sweet continence and pure aura. The woman is apparently even a virgin and follower of one of the deities of purity, I initially had absolutely no idea what she was doing as Master Zaraya's disciple until I learnt Masters training strategy myself.

She doesn't train us to fight or teach us to use weapons or different fighting styles to my initial confusion. The woman examines us in that way she does then gives us a schedule to follow while she supervises. Sounds simple but it isn't and after the first day it actually made a lot of sense once I thought about it.

"Okay, you each follow the schedules I set up for you. No deviations or I'll know, no slacking either."

The first day is mostly the same as it was with Ragnar and Silo. We spend something like 23 hours outside gathering the indicated herbs in the required quantities and then hunting for the little flying camouflage squirrels that live on a little isle in the middle of Lake Mamihlipanata. Very difficult animals to catch and impossible to stalk so all my previous hunting experience is utterly useless and we have to use our senses to catch them.

We deliver the animals to the butcher, Richardson something and the herbs to Isis and the old woman. They allow us into the smoke tent and we spend some hours there getting in touch with our spiritual selves and the spirits that haunt our lives. For me that's the deity of knowledge and my own spirit getting in better touch with my physical being, I have no idea what it entails for Inam, Lucas and Sam high on my own hallucinations.

From there we go to the baths for a deep scrubbing, then massaging, then acupuncture, then the meditation hall where our schedules slightly diverge and we go to different meditation focuses. Meditation can be exhausting regardless of how relaxing people like to say it is and spending close to 16 hours at the meditation hall is a form of corporal punishment by my opinion.

We go through the ringer or at least I do as I have to go through chakra meditation, quiet mind meditation, body awareness meditation, awareness meditation, meditating with my zanpakutō, thinking meditation, even talking to Gaia, the Trinity and whatever else deity I feel like talking to. I didn't even know talking to the gods was considered a form of meditation until these people that specialise in this stuff took a look at my schedule and put me through the ringer.

By the time I leave the hall my head is pounding and heavy from all that concentration with Zaraya waiting for me outside along with everyone else. It is already night time, about the time I usually head to my battle group but apparently we are now exempt from that until our schedules change.

"Good work everyone, now you all have 6 hours of sleep next, I've arranged for new lodging were you will be in the same apartment. After the 6 hour sleep time you continue with your schedules, I've been watching your efforts and I'm impressed." And with those words she left, a dictator.

We got some sleep, I was mentally exhausted and 6 hours ended quickly for me before we had to go to our different dojos. I went back to the man that was instructing me in unarmed while I was still following Pleo around and we got back into our training rhythm without a hiccup. After 2 hours in unarmed I'm off to sword practice in the actual dueling yard, I've never actually been here before but I meet up with Inam and Lucus who also focus on the sword as their main weapons.

The instructors take a look at each of our schedules and we are again separated into different classes. I'm led through the dueling yard and out to the back all the while wondering what is written on these schedules that I can't see. At the back I'm led to another room with a beautiful wooden floor I'm required to remove my shoes before entering.

To my complete and utter shock it's a Hito man that meets me inside and I immediately take up the old etiquette I learnt at Honshu bowing at the waist and kneeling waiting for instruction, I should have worn a hakama.

My behaviour is acknowledged with a bow and then he shows me his zanpakutō, which is easily identifiable in the eyes of the initiated. Great, another soul-samurai, all of them are fanatics of the sword and if this guy is my new sword master then things will get serious.

"I am Masashi Odate of the Omura clan in the Hidden Ha Village." He introduces himself with a bow.

"I am Sachihiro van Damage of Paradisum in the Tundra." I say with my own bow still kneeling.

He nods before asking, "Who was your kenjutsu master?"

"Master Hiroyuki Sanada." I say still keeping my head down.

"I know of Sanada, he is a respected warrior by reputation and the reputation of his students. Who was your zanjutsu master?"

"Kazimoto the Beautiful Madman." I say surprising him completely.

"Rise." He says after a moment and studies me intently. "You had Kazimoto as an instructor?"

"Yes."

"He gave you a style?" He asks seriously, definitely a fanatic.

"Yes."

"Have you mastered it?" He asks his eyes looking at me intensely.

"No, I am still a justus at the style but a master at swordsmanship."

"You wouldn't have a zanpakutō if your weren't a master leveled swordsman." He says and I refrain from telling him I have this mainly through bribery than anything else, though I've since lived up to the samurai legacy of skill mastery.

"Very well," he continues, "I cannot help you with a unique style from the old master but I can help you with your kenjutsu and zanjutsu mastery. I am a grandmaster swordsman and a master leveled zanjutsu swordsman, we will dedicate 10 hours of everyday here. This room is warded so no spirit energy or soul energy can enter or leak out so you will not need to hold back."

My zanpakutō hums lightly at those words and a similar anticipation originates from his katana in his hands. He nods to acknowledge it as well.

"It has been many years since Ozorimaru has let herself loose against another zanpakutō, let's begin immediately." He says unsheathing a beautiful silver implacable blade with an edge that can cut through light.

I know my nodachi's name as well but I'm not yet ready to announce it, my monster tells me she has to be whole before I can fully unleash her true form.

"We will start with the kenjutsu forms." He says taking a stance. I unlimber my own monster and unsheathing her to a happy loud ringing that fills the room. I take a stance and we face each other, before we know it we've both moved and sparks start flying.

Something close to 10 hours later I'm off to the healers with the help of some of the other dueling students holding my severed arm up against the stump so it can be reattached, at least its a cut from a katana. Katana cuts are always clean, I think before I allow myself to pass out instead of go into the Rage.

I wake up with Master Zaraya standing over me with Shea and another healer not far off. She grins at me like she's pleased or something, I flex my arm and a sharp pain shoots up into me.

"We just attached it, you will need to rest it for another 100 hours before you can fully use it again." The unknown healer says.

"Which is just about enough time for you to face Masashi again, you did good." Zaraya says nodding happily and I can see Shea scowling at my master displeased but not protesting. It seems my new Master has more cloud in the conclave than I realised.

"How can I have done good with a severed arm?" I ask getting up with her help, I feel much weaker than I should but a light quest of spirit sense let's me know that all my bound weapons are in the room within reach and I relax a little.

"You lasted nearly 8 hours, I'm impressed. I didn't know you could go that long with someone at his level when you used your polearm of a sword over there, well done." She says again with a grin and I realise that my new master is a little crazy. Why would she put me in a room with the man if she didn't expect me to last, complete Savage this lady.

But I grin at little as well, I needed that fight, that release, it was amazing to let the monster loose for a change. At least the monster that's my nodachi. The monster that's my Rage is an entirely different kind of problem and I know at some point it will eventually come out, the berserker rage always finds a reason to come out.

From there its a group session with Master Zaraya and the other disciples. She talks about letting go, about how vast the world is and the universe as a whole and how our little planet Gaia is just the tip of the iceberg. She talks about how we are frogs in a well thinking this is all that life has to offer and how our Imperiums and Archmages think they have acquired true power but they haven't, not in the bigger scheme of things.

She says we should reach for things that are so far beyond us that we can barely imagine them as possible, that even toddlers reach for things beyond their grasp yet as we get older and our imagination is stifled by people saying we can't do this or that we lose sight of what we could become.

She says that we don't even know what we are capable of yet we have the audacity to choose to dictate our Awakenings? Apparently the height of stupidity in her eyes is taking the gift from the heavens Mana, and dictating how we want it to affect change in our lives instead of letting it do as it deems appropriate or necessary.

She speaks of her own Awakening experience and how she let the heavens make the changes it thought best for her through her Awakening. Of how her own imagination and vision would always put limits on her progress and how she hoped by letting her body Awaken to Mana as it chose she could be more than whatever she would have otherwise envisioned for herself.

She speaks of her many array of Gaia acknowledged skills from many different disciplines from magic, psionic, warrior, elemental and more things she was still discovering about herself. She speaks of how slow her developmental progress is compared to other Awakened that specialise in either magic, or psionics but of how versatile she is as a result of her way of Awakening.

A way that has been followed by 4 other people successfully that she knows about, 3 of them members of the Order and one of them from another world. She speaks a little on the new tier system of gauging Awakening that was taught at the Academy where the initial stage of Awakening is called tier 1 Awakening regardless of specialisation. Whether it be in magic or warrior or sex or anything else everyone that has gone through the first stage of Awakening may specialise in, it is a tier 1 Awakening.

A system apparently used in a world called Omega she once visited that she glosses over. Awakened Lord being tier 2, Awakened King being tier 3, and Imperium being tier 4 level of Awakening. She implies that there are greater tiers of Awakening we haven't even dreamt of on Gaia and she leaves us with that topic to discuss, otherwise it's a good meal we all share.

From there it's off to the underside where Abigail introduces me to Brandi, Sarah and Harley who completely change my understanding of the pleasure and fulfilment that can be derived from sex. Yes, I receive my first sexual experience from women that are tier 1 sex Awakened and its a glorious experience that leaves me moaning and shuddering in pleasure as I experience my first multiple orgasm. I didn't even know males could experience though but Brandi is a master of her craft.

Harley and Sarah mostly watch and occasionally help out but my 3 hours in Brandi's care leave me completely satiated without being tired of sex or even mentally tired. In fact my mind seems to have been almost completely rested even as my body feels that satisfied fatigue.

After that its back to the surface for another 6 hours of sleep before we have to go to our chosen fields of study for another 6 to 10 hours of personal study. For me that means time at the Spiritus with the other would be sorcerers, enchanters and spiritists.

Master Hyde helps me practice summoning my nodachi from across the room to my hand, something I apparently did while in the Rage with apparent ease. I can sort of do it but only after going through the summoning dance which shouldn't be the case. Once the dance has been mastered it shouldn't be necessary to go through the whole process every time I'm summoning something I've already summoned and have a contract with, in this case my nodachi.

After that it's off to mandatory eating with the others, a spacial diet we apparently have to follow. Master Zaraya joins us and keeps talking about letting go and not relying on ourselves so much, brainwashing or indoctrination but it starts sinking in. After the meal we have 10 hours to ourselves before the entire process starts all over again.

It took us something like 110 hours to finish the regiment today so by the time we go for hunting and gathering its already past dawn. That is the schedule that Master Zaraya has set up for us for the 2 months I have left at the Compound before beginning the journey home.