Into The Shadow [Stealth Spec Training]

How long it has been...? He murmured to himself, slowly losing count of how many days, months or years it has been since he started his quest to find his sister. His fire began to fade out as there was no hint or lights of hope about his sister whereabouts. He started to think again about why did he believed so much that his sister was still alive and out there. Her body never been found, but who knows that someone take the corpse... There was no sign of her murder, but again, the killer may take her and killed her at another place. This whole searching thing made him stressed, but if he didn’t continue and stop believing, then he wouldn’t have any reason to live anymore. He didn’t mind being dead, but this little hope he bad that resided deep in his dark heart needed to be granted and in order to do that, he needed to keep living and try his best to at least find a clue about his sister's whereabouts or even the information about his family murder.

Even now, the black haired man still couldn’t find any clue, like all of it was engulfed by the pitch black shadow. He assumed all of this was the work of professionals, them leaving all of those blood stain and making the house messy were just their tricks for something even worst. Tenma needed to know how they operate, was it like an assassin that could hide their presence and kill mercilessly? He needed to find out and think like them so he decided to take the path of shadow. At least even though turned out it was not how they worked, he still could use it for his own use and advantage. It would made the killing to be easier... And he could be creative too.

It wouldn’t be easy if he wanted to train it alone as he needed to understand how it really works. Actually he knew all the basic and theories to be in the path of shadow, but it was not enough, he needed it to be perfect and flawless. So he asked for help from his mentor by sending her a message through bird messenger and was waiting for her, wondering if she would come or not. Ouka was the one who influence him and gave him the whole idea to learn stealth, because besides being a powerful swordswoman she was once a trained assassin based from what she told Tenma before. Of course the man only smiled and listened to what his mentor wanted to share, but he wouldn’t believe it for a hundred percent. Well, whether Ouka could truly train him or not, he would find out as soon as the she came and start the training. He already had some idea to train it by himself even though the woman didn’t come, but he would still wait until the sun went down like what was written in the message.

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*clack clack* The sound of her geta clacking against the ground loudly as she walked through the crowded city of Heliohapt, swaying her hips in a seductive way. This time she was not inside the fancy noble cart that was especially made for the noble women and no guard was around her too. She hummed happily while covering her peach colored lips with her fan, ignoring every curious gaze directed towards her while heading to the promised venue. It was very fortunate for her as she never thought that the man would ask her to train him again, and this time it was her other specialty that the man asked her to train him. Her obsidian orbs slowly being covered by her eye lids, remembering that day when she went into the path of shadow, becoming an assassin.

Ouka:

There was something more behind her, the secret that must not be revealed to anyone even to her student as she only tell him that she was once an assassin but no more detail being shared. As now the one eyed man would request her to guide him into the same path as her, she couldn’t help but to feel amused, wondering what reason he could have to be so eager to learn such dark path. “Ahh… For her…” The brunette would open her eyes and smiled wider, she should had known that all his act must be for that girl. She giggled, noticing that the man already waited for her in front of the Temple of Ra and ran towards the man. “Tenma!”

“Maste—“ The woman jumped to him, pressing her body against him and planted her lips on his, cutting off his words. But the woman grunted in annoyance as she didn’t manage to kiss the man’s lips and ended up kissing his palm instead, “Tch… Don’t block it!” Ouka pouted but Tenma didn’t affected by that and keeping his calm smile intact while putting finger over her lips, “I appreciate your kindness to come here, but it will be a trouble if such beautiful noble woman like you kissing a lowly peasant as me. In fact… I wouldn’t want those man who admired you to be jealous at me… right?” He chuckled and then pushed her away gently, slowly taking her hand and lifted it up before placing a soft, gentle kiss on the knuckle. “Well then, teach me everything you can… Master Ouka…” He said with a smirk, before preparing all the things they needed and head to the forest near the desert to start their training.

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“So we will be sleeping outside…? Well it is not like I mind. It is nostalgic, making me remember those past days when I used to train myself in such area.” The woman said as soon as they arrived at the forest near the desert, observing the man as he set up the camp there. He would chuckle at the woman while continuing setting up the tent, “I do apologize for letting you rest in the place like this though, Master.” The brunette just giggled and spread her paper fan, fanning herself and waited until he finished setting up the tent before finally it was time to start the training. She already prepared herself, knowing it would be difficult to move in such attire if she wanted to be fast and sneaky, so she tied her lower part of the kimono and revealed some part of her legs. Ouka would start by asking her student, “It’s been a while since I trained you, so tell me… what you want to learn…and how I should train you…”

“I aim to be an assassin, just like you in your glorious past. So maybe you can put me in the condition where I will be forced to learn it.” Tenma explained briefly, but still not revealing his true intention behind his words. “Or you can start by teaching me a little bit…slowly?” He smiled at the woman and sat down when the woman asked him to do so.

Ouka began to give some lecture for the black haired man after she sat down, “I believe in three words in the path of shadows: Confidence, Merciless and Invisible.” She made her hand into fist and lifted her pointy finger, “Confidence, means that you need to be sure for all your act, all of your action must be perfect and flawless.” She then put up her middle finger and continued, “Second, Merciless, no hesitation allowed, no kindness needs to be shown and when you kill, make sure it is neat.” And lastly, she put up her ring finger, “Third one… Invisible, hide your presence, you need to be a shadow… no one shall see you or know you. So far, anything you want to ask?”

The swordsman shook his head and simply gave no for his answer, he knew about that things already and understand it very well. So he would let Ouka to continue, “I understand… but I am curious to know… this path is very different from the samurai path that you chose, while samurai path is all about fairness and justice, this path was dark and sly. This path simply forced you to do some cowardice move.” She stopped as soon as she heard Tenma’s laugh, noticing his mockery towards her last words. The swordsman cleared his throat after stopping his laugh, “I apologize for mocking your last words, Master. As I believe that the beauty of being stealthy was it consist of smart and strategic move, it forced us to think and act quickly, any wrong move will lead into our end. Isn’t that more interesting?” He would then stood up, putting his Katana just in front of the tent and continued, “…and no matter what path that I chose, whether it is the path of swordsmanship or path of shadows, or even both, I need to get stronger.”

It was the woman’s turn to laugh, but it was not mockery hinted, it was just amusing for her. She would then stand up too, locking her obsidian orbs with her student’s topaz orb and said after letting out a chuckle, “Fine… let’s begin the training shall we…? First of all, try to find my whereabouts and attack me sneakily in 5 hours. I will do the same too, like playing tag. Understand?”

The woman began to run as quickly as she could, fading into the dark woods as if blending herself into to darkness. Tenma smiled, making sure that Guren was placed safely behind his coat as he might use it as his main weapon to attack Ouka right now and dashed towards the deep dark forest. The man knew that it was the best to observe from somewhere high, so he climbed one of the tree and waited there until several minutes passed and he decided to jump from a tree to another tree, trying to find his mentor.

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WC: 1662/2000

Tenma knew the nature of his mentor, she was sly and strong at the same time. That was one of the reason why the swordsman wanted her to train him again as he admit that Ouka was one of the best mentor he could ever ask. The combination from both of her strength and intelligence was unbeatable, to think that this woman who was only five years older than Tenma could be having that kind of high value, the one eyed man was very grateful to had her as a mentor. But now was not the time to be absorbed into thoughts, he started to look everywhere, however he didnt find the brunette anywhere and ended up being attacked by the woman in the almost finished time. Tenma was lucky to bring his Wakizashi as he brought it out in time and used it to prevent the woman's sharp fan slashing his neck. With those prevention, Ouka chuckled and suggesting to rest. "We will continue next morning... I need my beauty sleep...."she smiled and then pat Tenma's back before entering the tent and said, "Tomorrow, I will play the demon. So prepare yourself..."
 

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The man panted heavily, already spending almost three days playing tag with his mentor and he seemed couldn’t match Ouka’s speed. Most of the time she would caught him, giving him a cut somewhere on his body as his punishment and then starting over the tag. ‘….dammit Tenma…’ He cursed himself while looking at his arms that were filled with cuts and smeared with blood, knowing that he needs to quickly learn how to hide his presence quickly or he would end up dying because of blood loss. The man took a deep breath and closed his eye while kneeling on the tree branch, elevating what he already learnt in these past three days to hide his presence. He needed to become one with his surrounding, blending himself in the area and erase his presence. Tenma noticed that someone was close, but paying it no attention as he kept on focusing to erase his own presence. It worked for several hours, but didn’t last long when his mentor showed up to him and said “Well, you’ve done a nice work… you’ve managed to conceal your presence… we will take a rest for now and start again tomorrow morning… this time… it’ll be your turn to be the demon…” Ouka smiled at her student before leaving the area, making Tenma closed his eyes and chuckled, hoping that he could chase the master of shadow.


WC : 2090 (Stealth Spec Training)

The sun was high when the man sneaked, looking up at the sky to count how many days has passed ever since it was his turn to be the ‘demon’ in this little tag game. ‘Four days huh…’ He mocked himself for not able to sneak properly to send a blow to his mentor, it seems that every time he already managed to get into spot where he could attack, Ouka would notice and quickly block it. He still remembered the woman’s comment, she said that his intention was too clear and was working to hone that, suppressing his murderous intention when he wanted to attack. It was all about attacking without being noticed, and this time he figured things out, all he needed was just do it, but he would first meditate on the tree, crossing his legs and emptying his mind. It was proved to help a lot when he wanted to conceal his presence, making him become more focused and calmer, too bad he didn’t realize that such simple things would be the method which helped him the most.

He needed to act like that murderer who killed his family member, needed to know what was in his mind and how he kill. That was all to learn the behavior and how the murdered would think so he could easily doing a profiling of that unknown murderer. If he managed to do it, he could try to locate the murderer location, making all the things become easier. But what was the cause of his reason to learn to be a shadow…?

5 Years Ago:

‘Ahh… yes… that simple…to get inside the mind of that…wretched being…’ the swordsman slowly opened his eyes and dashed quickly but without making any sound or giving out his presence. His only focus was to be that murderer, and his goal was to kill a strong swordsman without any effortless move or act. As soon as he found his mentor, lazily sitting under the tree, Tenma wasted no time to think. He knew what to do and his body automatically moved to what he wanted to do, like he didn’t need to control his body anymore. The man lifted his Wakizashi and put his strength calmly before throwing it towards the woman, making a crescent shape. He used it as a distraction as he dashed without any sound when the woman attempted to catch the weapon, placing his hand around Ouka’s neck and grabbed her hand that was holding his Guren.

The brunette would giggle, slowly releasing herself from Tenma’s hold and said while smiling, “I see you managed to learn everything. I am amazed, you still are a fast learner.” She smiled at the man while covering her lips with the paper fan. “And this is where my job is done, all that left was your own creativity to enhance the basic.” Tenma nodded and smiled back to the woman, before Ouka continued, “Well, it was fun… but I need to head back soon. Just send me a message if you need anything, I will be happy to help. Or if you are in need of a womanly warmth—“

The black haired man put his finger on her lips again, hushing her before saying, “It was fun too… and master, find a husband already… you are like… 5 years older than me.” And at the time Ouka lifted her leg, attempted to blow a downward kick on his head but the man stepped back to make her kick failed. “Hmph… well… I bid you farewell… Tenma.” She chuckled darkly before vanishing through the dark, thick trees, leaving the man alone in the middle of the forest. The one eyed man would sigh and then took his chance to rest in the tent before continuing his training for another five days before he was ready to exit the forest.

‘I am getting closer…and I am stronger too…’

WC : 1327 (Stealth D->C)