Sachihiro

There is a moment between blinks that we all know about and experience in our everyday life without paying particular attention to. The moment between tangible moments where sometimes very important life-changing events occur. The moment we refer to as a 'split second' regardless of how long it actually lasts. That moment of split decision, that moment of split action we sometimes experience when our blood is hot.

It is at that moment that a battle between awakened occurs and it is at that moment that an unbridled zanjutsu battle occurs.

Sparks fly as our blades connect to a sound like sizzling fat in a fire. I switch my footing and duck down as I push my entire weight behind my next slash, Masashi twists and spins over me our elbows connect as we both block each other's strikes, my legs are already on their way to sweep at his feet as he already counters with a knee. We spin and twist even as our blades connect, him keeping close me trying to create space.

His strikes mostly come in from above and slashing diagonally downwards trying to keep me on the floor, a strategy to prevent me from using the unpredictable moves of my acrobatic style kyokugei.

Zanjutsu is more than a discipline in the use of a soul sword, it's more than the use of spirit and soul in combat, it's about a completely pure art of swordsmanship, it is a way that can be followed to immortality and beyond.

Zanjutsu is to fight in such a way that the part of your soul that is in the weapon and the part of your soul that is in the body become one. When you become a living weapon to the extent that even though you can't see your opponent's sword with your eyes the part of your soul that can defend and neutralize the threat does so. Our movements are so fast and precise that I can't follow his blade with my eyes yet I never miss a block, a parry, a little shift that gets me out of his reach.

I can follow his body, I can follow his feet, I can sometimes even follow his eye movements but I cannot follow his blade with my sight, that's how fast we're moving and at our level of skill if you depend on just your eyes to fight you're dead.

But I can and I do deflect and counter his blows because it's not with sight that I fight but with my soul, all of it as I have achieved something I now know as soul presence. There is no holding back between us as my bloodlust rises to dangerous levels, dangerous for him because I am at the edge of the Rage and I like it.

Truly this is a warrior worthy as a glorious death, truly I should give him the honour of a death with a clean soul. Yes, yes I should give him everything I have so that he may speak of me in the ever-after, so we may be warrior-brothers there that have shed each other's blood writing our sagas into the stars for the astrologers and seers to read, and with that thought, I blissfully fall into the Cold Rage.

I feign and swing he deflects and I twist and step as he deflects the blade but my foot connects to his chest pushing him stumbling back. I can't believe I have been resisting this liberation and clarify of thought and purpose. This freedom to do as I please and do what's necessary in the face of seeking deeper truths.

I look at Masashi and know that he needs to know the true purpose of the sword as he goes to the grave, taking that truth with him to contemplate in his afterlife.

I move forward with an amplified step the wood splintering under my foot and the air bursting away slightly in my wake, our blades clash to sparks and a sound like the clapping of fefelent flaps.

I really don't know how he could have moved in time to stop that strike nor where he got the power to not have my strike go right through his guard but he does block it even as he's pushed stumbling further back and I strike again.

My side swing is somehow deflected again to white sparks and the sound of pans clashing together as I chip off a part of his very soul. I moving in and out with my strikes leaving long gashes on his arms and sides as his blade starts to defend just a moment too late to prevent a cut but fast enough to save his life.

Though it's all he can do to stay alive as I move in attack barely giving him time to think I find it admirable that he has lasted this long at all. Truly this is a grandmaster swordsman to make me work up a sweat and I will remember him, this here will be the first of many teachers that I will defeat on my path to godhood and glory. In that way, he will be remembered as being part of my story and my humble beginnings.

I move in and up and his left arm detaches with a spin and spray twisting in the air but he still manages to deflect my next 3 strikes moving in concert with me before the upward momentum of his severed arm reaches the peak of its displacement.

I kick and slash and stab and stab and slash as the arm pauses in the air for a moment before starting its inevitable descent. I'm impressed as we dance the dance of death, I did not expect that he had it in himself at his current level to challenge me to this extent and for this long, not when my mind is as clear as it is and I am in pure combat mode. That's what I should call this clear-minded focused state, combat mode. I think even as I take half his left foot clean off giving myself the clear advantage as he loses his footing.

I twist and stab taking him through the chest before cleanly pulling out as he crumbles behind me, his blood squirting out of his chest in a dramatic geyser. It's not like his death was in question as soon as I let myself go, but he lasted longer than I would have thought him capable.

He is only a grandmaster swordsman and a master kenjutsu specialist after all, not even a tier 1 Awakened but relying on skill alone to test himself against me. Admirable but a mistake I won't let anyone that I face survive from.

The geyser of blood sprays out from what used to be his heart which is just now an organ with a clean hole in it as I walk away from him not needing my eyes to be aware of the entire room.

I'm surprised as Zaraya steps forward from a spot on the wall that is conspicuously empty to my vibration sense and moves like lightning to put a hand on Masashi's chest and channel her energies into his wound and heart.

I watch her the whole time even as I turn to face her, she is extremely fast yet she is fast in slow motion. There is something strange with what she is doing to him almost like she is welding him together and the strength of his soul is helping keep him intact. His eyes flutter open as he looks up at Zaraya even as her energy permeates into him stopping his stumps from bleeding.

"H-he.. Pughhh.. he arggh.." He sputters out a mouthful of blood as he tries to speak and Zaraya soothes him with a soft shushing sound as she turns his head to the side so he doesn't choke.

"Shhh... It's okay, I know, you'll be okay and I'll take care of everything." She says and he closes his eyes and relaxes.

She lifts him off the floor easily and walks him towards the door which is opened by a 3rd arm I never before noticed she had that is invisible to the naked eye and completely undetectable to most senses. She places him in the hands of waiting healers and closes the sliding door with a soft click before facing me fully.

"So I finally get to see the Berserker Rage of Sachihiro, you're strong but you're still holding back." She says as she takes her shoes off before rolling up her sleeves and stretching her legs dramatically.

I watch this display ready to bestow upon her the honour of death at my hands, its a shame she prevented Masashi from experiencing that death but it's his loss more than anyone else's. I'm looking at her and she doesn't seem to be empowering herself while my spirit-aura is white to those that can see it, billowing like a layer of fire on top of my skin.

"What makes you think I'm holding back?" I ask even as I ready my own legs for movement but all in all, I'm ready for action. I take a breath and let it out cold and thin having maximized the amount of energy I absorb from the air.

"Wow, your voice is different," she says unlimbering a short sword from her spacial ring on her left hand before getting into a defensive crouch.

I grin at her, even as she continues to speak. "You've been avoiding this side of yourself trying to prevent it from coming out for fear of hurting someone. It's okay, I'm here now and I'm your Master and I say it's okay to let out the berserker Sachi, you won't be able to hurt me so let it all out.

"You've been like a fist that's been clenching too tightly for so long that you don't really know how to let go anymore but it's okay, the berserker rage is beautiful to-" she doesn't finish that sentence as I rush in and strike down with a downward strike that could fell a tree in half, but she stops it cold on her aura honed short sword.

I kick and sweep and duck and slash and slash and slash even as my spirit aura keeps increasing in intensity as I unleash myself frustrated by the apparent ease with which she is deflecting my strikes and her excessive talking. "Let it all out Sachi, it's okay-"

I cut off her mental projections from reaching me even as our blades keep meeting to the dull sounds of to blunt metal objects clashing together. I am the weapon and I am honed for a killing edge.

"That was impressive Sachi well done, but you have to do better than that to permanently keep my voice from reaching you." Her mental communication permeates into my mental shielding like smoke through cell bars seemingly unstoppable.

"Haahhhhhh" I roar as something within my shoulder tears as I swing a strike from a completely unexpected angle only to have that stopped cold on the middle of her sword that now has spiderweb cracks where our blades meet.

"Yes Sachi let it all out, let everything out but don't lose anything in this fight, don't lose the knowledge of how to transcend the limits of your body." She keeps saying even as she moves keeping me at bay with a phantom arm which I find I can injure just as easily as I can any other arm but it's replaced by another and another.

My left knee pops out of alignment as I twist and block a strike from her that was also too fast to follow with my eyes but I have long since sunk deep into my vibration sense and soul presence .

Vibration sense makes everything monochromatic around me providing minute detail of all movements within a 5m radius around me. It isn't even my bodies senses that I've been using in this fight I suddenly realize, these are the senses on my blade.

It hums and vibrates at different frequencies and different tunes mapping out our surroundings and keeping track of things even outside the visible light frequencies. Things like Zaraya's phantom arms that should be impossible to see and are soundless as they come at me one at a time.

I know she is trying and failing to smother a smile as her arms come at me one after another from different directions, flexible beyond reason and their length extending as long as she chooses to make them. I destroy my body as the limits that the mind has set in every human creature to prevent self-harm are broken.

I move so fast I rip at some of my muscles, twist at such angles that some of my ligaments snap, I move so swiftly that the sound of my movements only follow after I've moved. I'm done with half-assing it, I'm doing this to the death, surely to kill such a worthy warrior is worth destroying this mortal body of mine.

And I can't say that I'm not enjoying this fight as frustrating as it is. It is obvious that she is well beyond me in power but I have surprised her a few times with my skill, nearly wounding her on several occasions.

The difference in power between us is vast, too vast for me to be such a challenge to her but I am, because in this state in this combat state using vibration sense I break the limits of my body, in this state I am pure zanjutsu.

We clash again and again and I notice with my own grin that its a new blade she is using to fight, how she switched it out so quickly I'm not sure but I'm happy with the fact that my spirit-aura honed blade cut through her own aura and damaged her first blade while she was being complacent.

My body is fast reaching its physical limits but is still remaining active maintained by my spirit-aura honed body , healing spirit and enhance effects with the rage helping me disregard the inconvenience of pain.

I start slowing down as the fight continues on and on for 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then 30. I can't maintain the fight for as long as I normally would have been able to I starts to realise even as the mental toll starts making itself felt beyond the just physical pain that my body is experiencing.

We fight and Zaraya speaks the entire time, projecting to my mind in Universal that my rage doesn't have to be tamed, that I have to understand myself as deeply as I can, even the deep dark corners of my soul that I usually try to avoid, corners that usually keep my cold rage locked.

Even if I'm not listening it's hard not to hear someone in your head, her insistent voice like a spirit oppression skill that insidiously digs into one's psyche planting doubts. Planting questions.

Why have I been fighting the rage for so long I ask myself, it feels great being in this state I'm now in, its liberating, focused and the power is twice anything I've ever experienced without the rage.

Even my skills are different like an entire part of my power that is usually locked away I have access to when I embrace this cold Rage.

Intellectually I know that I don't want to not feel, I don't want to hurt those I love but to be honest, even in the cold Rage I do feel, its just the pesky moral compass that likes to get in the way that I seem to have done away with. It's not like I've really hurt anyone I cared for while in the rage, though I would if they got in my way.

Zaraya twists and surprises me by unleashing two phantom arms at me, I cut at one but the other knocks me spinning through the air. I twist in the air and land crouched on my feet but my knee collapses under me and Zaraya pins me down with her invisible arm that sometimes has hands and is sometimes shaped like a hammer or a stake.

"Well done Sachi, but I see you are at your limit. At least the limit of what your body can sustain before giving out," she says out loud walking towards me and squatting a few inches from my face. "Can we have a conversation now?" She asks after having completely dominated me.

"Speak," I say thoroughly defeated even in my best fighting form, even in my Rage that seems to be the panicle of power I can achieve, and it's the second time the Rage hasn't been enough to make a difference.

"You are in the berserker rage now but I want you to try to think clearly and rationally", if only she knew I've never been more clear in my life, "I want you to catalogue all the skills you have access to now that you usually don't when not in the berserker rage. I want you to teach yourself those skills so that you can always have access to them, do you understand?"

Even as she speaks I try to follow what she is saying and I try to do as she suggests but light and different colours are seeping into my vision again. Like the coming of the dawn to chase away the splendour of the night, I'm losing my rage as it seeps away from me like water flowing down a drain, I try to reconcile my two personalities even as it does.

Who am I really, am I the person I am when in the Rage or am I the person I am now as I feel like I'm blinking awake. There is a deeper more intimate connection between my Rage self and my normal self now, I think I understand him better and with that understanding, there is a lessening of fear.

I sigh as I fully come back to myself and notice Master Zaraya's hand on my chest the entire time.

"Amazing." She says with a smile as darkness claims me.