Epiphany [Solo/Plot/training]

“Now what…?” The black haired man mumbled to himself as he sat inside the bathtub filled with hot water, his thoughts began to wonder as he tried to figure out what he had to do next. He ran his fingers through his hair, combing it to the back as he sighed. The man was lost, not literally lost, but he just feel that something was missing or something had to be done… even he was not so sure on what he was feeling at the moment. He would close his eyes for a bit though as he brought his fingers to the back of his head to untie the eyepatch, revealing the shining crimson orb behind. The swordsman felt calm, there was no pain coming from his crimson eye like he usually felt, this time he just feel normal although he was not sure why. His fingers would touch his red eye, caressing the eyelid for a few seconds before he put down his hand into the water and closed his eyes while he leaned his body to make himself more comfortable.

It was not dark when he close his eyes, it didn’t work like how anyone else felt when they close their eyes. Instead of total darkness, it was only crimson that he could see, as if a bloody veil had covered his eyes. He began to think for how long it has been since the last time he felt normal, how long it has been since the last time he could become himself. No, he didn’t lost himself to the persona that he made, he just… didn’t know when he can finally fully becoming himself again. However it was not because he wanted it for himself, he was just… worried about his sister. What if she forgot… what if she hate him when she knew he was her brother… at this moment, they were merely an acquaintance, someone who met and got connected because of the civil war. All the bad thoughts made his head twitched in pain and all he could do was only keep closing his eyes and slowly massaged his head with his hand.

Tenma would slowly open his eyes, thinking that if there was something that could distract him from all this thoughts at the moment, training himself to be stronger was probably the best thing that he could do for now.


His mind drifted as he walked out from the bathroom and wiped himself from the water on his body carefully, he wondered what his sister was doing at the time like this, wondered if his sister got enough rest or not, wondered if she got injured… and so on. The black hakama that he had put on the bed was being worn now, the fine fabric slowly caressed his skin as he slipped his hands before carefully tying it up. Just when he wanted to wear the eyepatch that he put on the table just before he was wearing his  hakama, he forgot that it was still wet because he basically brought the eyepatch to the bathtub. A sigh would escape his lips, instead of looking for another eyepatch or even made a substitute one, Tenma decided to just not use it at the moment, letting his crimson eyes to be seen by the others. He would take his Katana with him before heading out from his room, possibly towards the training hall, hoping that nobody would be there so he could train alone.

WC: 582/3000

There was no one at the training hall after all and Tenma could understand why no one would be there to train themselves more at the time. It was not like they were very confident that they could win the war so they think they didn’t need to make themselves stronger anymore. It was more like… they were using the time to clear their minds, refreshing their thoughts and probably make some time with their family for a short time before they had to go to the war again. So many deaths, so many sacrifices…and the man wondered what kind of reason that they had to fight for the country, betting their lives on the edge. Patriotism? Family? Trust? It could be one of those things, it could be another thing as well. But for Tenma, his sister was his sole reason to win the war. It didn’t have to be literal, but at least he had to keep Yoshiro stay at the throne as he trust the man would do a great job for his people’s growth and safety. That way, Kou could be a safe haven for his sister to live and enjoy her life to the fullest.

Another sigh escaped his lips, but the wasted air didn’t seem to give him any kind of relieve even a little as he still feeling tense. Tenma would stand in the middle of the room with his Katana pointed up, he would look at his sword deeply, and focusing solely like it was the only thing that exist in the room at the moment. “Myou…” He called the name of his Katana before closing his eyes and moved his sword, letting the sheath to touch his forehead. Slowly, he would let the light to lift the dark curtain as he opened his eyelids and he would positioned himself to an offensive stance, one hand gripped the sheath and another gripped the handle of the Katana. With a swift movement, the swordsman delivered his first slash. Then he would continue it with another slash, it got no pattern but he kept slashing the air again and again until he stopped himself.

He knew that his slashes were messy, it got no pattern and it looked like he was slashing aimlessly as if there was something that was still bugging his mind. He didn’t know what to do, no matter what he did, the thoughts inside his head... all the worries that he had kept swirling around in his mind. The swordsman would take a deep breath before letting it out slowly and repeating it again for several times, until he actually felt a little better. This was not good for Tenma as the thought would still bother him even if he continued his sword training, so the black haired man decided to put his Katana into the sheathe again and sat down. He would put his Katana on the tatami floor before starting to close his eyes and try to meditate.

WC: 1082/3000

It was the same scenery all over again as the black haired man closed his eyes, it was red, crimson was all he could see instead of black. But this time, instead of running away and opened his eyes, he decided to go deeper as he concentrated harder. He could hear the sound of the wind clearer, there was the sound of water dripping into the well too and his own breathing. Tenma went even deeper, as if he was plunging himself into an endless hole.

“Hey…” A voice began to appear, although Tenma had chosen to ignore it and kept focusing on his meditation. He knew that voice well, it was himself, his other side that he kept trying to suppress due to the fear of his sister’s reaction. He wondered why his other self, that those wretched alchemist created, would appear to the surface at the time like this. Perhaps that other self was the reason why he couldn’t really feel at ease? Maybe… The swordsman didn’t really want to think about that at the moment. He began to empty his mind again, this time his breathing would be more stable than before. “Caine.” The voice called his true name this time, seemed like he wanted to say something although Tenma guessed it would be his trick to mess with his meditation.

The man would give in thought, wanting to know why his other side kept bugging him. “What?” he said to himself mentally. Then he could hear a chuckle, a faint one, but he knew the owner of the chuckle. With a sigh, Tenma would began to concentrate again, wanting to continue his meditation. “How long has it been since we last talked like this… You keep trying to suppress me…” The voice would chuckle again, “I am surprised though… if I was in control at that time, we wouldn’t have to follow what that redhead said. Considering that you were smart enough to understand why he wanted you to devote your life to Kou, I wonder why you agreed to do it…”

Tenma would open his eyes slowly but it was not the training room that he saw in front of his eyes. It was an open field with crimson sky and violent wind breeze like usual, nothing changed, the sky never change… the wind was always harsh and it was always quiet like a ghost town there.


“I have no other choice…” The swordsman would say to his reflection as he was standing in front of a big mirror. “That was all I can do for her at the moment. Whether she like it or not, for the sake of her safety.”

The reflection began to tilt his head, his red eyes was shining bright like the sky, “For the sake of her safety or for your own fear…?” There was a smirk carved on his face as he said that with a hint of mockery inside. A glare was being sent towards the reflection, although he couldn’t deny it, his other self was correct with his guess. Tenma’s yellow orbs would be closed as he let out a sigh before he opened his eyelid a few seconds later. “Both.” He said, pausing a little bit, “She will be safe here… in Kou, under the emperor’s protection. She doesn’t have to know that I am her brother for now, she just have to know that there are a lot of people that genuinely care about her.”

His reflection wouldn’t say anything to Tenma’s words, his face seemed angry because he didn’t expect Tenma would give that kind of answer. Perhaps the chimera side couldn’t take control of the body yet because Tenma was smart enough to prevent it, although his sanity was slowly being ripped apart…and if he showed any signs of weaknesses… perhaps… he wouldn’t be able to become himself anymore.

The man opened his eyes again and this time what he saw was the training room, he was no longer inside his inner mind and the voice didn’t appear anymore this time. He sighed for the third time though before he stood up and began to do sword swinging training. This time his swing was not messy, it was like he wanted it to be and he was pretty content about it as he kept swinging his sword until he could feel that his arms began to give out. He wanted to be stronger, much stronger than his current state, he had to be stronger… and it was all for the sake of his sister. She was his only family, the only treasure in this world that he needed to guard and perhaps his everything…

Now that he found her… he kept asking to himself about what he would do after that and constantly thinking about what would happen if he was finally able to tell her that he was her brother. That was no healthy and he knew it… but he couldn’t help it. However he knew that he just need to become stronger to compensate it all, he had to be powerful enough so when the time came, he would be ready.

For each swing that he did, he would add one more swing on the next swing, thus giving him a challenge to concentrate on counting as well as to control his movement. It was something that he thought when he got bored with all the training portion that he made for himself, doing the same thing over and over again didn’t give him any kind of excitement anymore, so he had to be creative. Not only that, it was pretty fun too. He didn’t stop even when the sweat began to drip to the ground, haven’t felt tired from all the swinging that he was doing. It seemed that today, sword swinging was all the training that he would do although he had prepared some other training for tomorrow, hopefully he could do it at early in the morning. By the time he felt that his arms began to give in, Tenma stopped himself, his breathing was heavy but he was enjoying it.

WC: 2106/3000

More than a week had passed as Tenma did his training and the man himself didn’t notice that it had been that long. He was focusing on getting stronger too much that he didn’t notice his surrounding, the time, frankly speaking, although it was not really a problem at all. “Why do you do the same training every day?” The girl who was leaning at the entrance door speaking towards the swordsman, her golden eyes shone brightly alongside with the moonlight. It seemed Tenma’s training’s regiment piqued up her interest, not to mention that the black haired man indeed had a lot of creative approach to do training. Oh well doing the same kind of training daily would be very boring and sometimes there would be some excuse to not do any training because of that, so Tenma liked to add more stuff into the training, thus making it more fun. It was not like he hated training, he liked it, but he just thought if he could add some variations, he would be more entertained.

“I use different method every day though, so it is not entirely the same.” Tenma said to the black haired girl as he kept swinging his sword before putting some movement. His movement varies though, he could spin around before delivering some slashes or jumped a bit before sending a slash and many more. It was almost like a sword dance for some people and probably that was what Tenma do, although he didn’t really think about it that way. The black haired girl tilted her head before staring at the man, acknowledging that he indeed had a beautiful movement, although he was holding a deadly weapon. "You look like you are dancing with a sword, seemed weird but strangely beautiful.” The black haired man would chuckle as he kept doing the sword dance, “Well, if you say so, little one.”

The black haired girl’s face didn’t change, although Tenma noticed the wrinkle between her eyebrows as soon as he called her a little girl. It was kind of apparent that the girl didn’t really like to be called that or even being treated like a child, although it was kind of hard for Tenma to not see her like one, especially after all this years. “I am sorry, I know you don’t like it if I call you that.” He would laugh playfully although his movement was still focused on his training. She was his treasure, his everything, a prized jewel that was even more valuable than his own life and he missed her. There was a lot of time that he just wanted to not care about anything and just go out there to give her a warm embrace, but he never did.

“Just call me by my name…” Said the girl as she took a step from the entrance before sitting down as she start to clean her dagger. Thinking to call it a night, the swordsman decided to end his training and approached the girl. He was breathing heavily because of he was a little bit exhausted, but after a few breathe in and out, his breathing got steady again. He would sit down near the girl, “I know, I just like teasing you sometimes. Your face wouldn’t really say that you are annoyed, but you made a lot of micro expressions, so it is apparent.” Tenma was good at spotting details and had always been good ever since he was a child, so reading Noir’s micro expression was not that hard. Besides, he felt that he still understand her like the old times, although he didn’t know if that was true or not. “So, Noir, why are you still up?” He spoke to her as he lift his sword to start cleaning it as well.

The girl didn’t answer right away, she would wait after a few seconds as she was wiping her dagger before dabbing it with cotton ball. “I just… couldn’t sleep. I’ve read all my books so… I don’t really know what to do if I couldn’t sleep.” She looked down, feeling a little bit embarrassed because her reason sounded silly. This made Tenma smiled though, if there was something that didn’t change from the old times, it was the fact that she loves books, probably more than anything. “Let’s buy some new books then, but it would be difficult to find a store that will be opened at the time like this… Maybe you should ask the emperor as see if he will let you to borrow some interesting book?” The swordsman chuckled again, liking the moment where he could have some conversation with his sister. She shook her head though, didnt really want to to Tenma's suggestion, "I doubt he will let me, besides... i have to cut down this bad habit of mind... if i buy more books, i wouldn't have the place to store it and that would be a problem."

The swordsman would lift his hand before putting it on Noir's head before ruffling her hair carefully, couldn't help but to show some affection to the black haired girl. How ironic was it... she was right in front him and yet, he couldnt tell her... But there was nothing he could do for now, besides from getting stronger.

”It is all for her… I have to protect her, have to be stronger… even if I have to protect her from anything, including myself… I have to get stronger…”

WC: 3025/3000
(Omega warrior training done)