Lesson Number One [ Private | Training | Tenma ]

Climbing to the mountain surely was tiring even for a trained swordsman like Tenma, but of course he would be tired because he kept climbing on his own and ignored some resting area even if he should have rest there for a bit. However it was not that hard to find a resting place that he could use, a mountain had a lot of resource and he could even rest on the tree for a bit. It had been a long time ever since he last climbed the Jade Dragon Mountain, perhaps the last time was around 5 years ago? He couldn’t really remember. He didn’t even remember why he would go climbing the mountain before, wondering maybe he went up here to get some refreshing after a whole day learning. It was not that important though because he had an important reason now, but he could say that he was not sure with the friend that he will be meeting soon… But oh well, he joined and promised the Imuchakk to meet up with him to waste some time too, so his uneasiness didn’t really matter. He was sure that he could protect himself for now…

The tree gave a lot of comfort for the one eyed man, giving him a place to lean against. The quietness in the forest helped to make the swordsman relaxed as well, so after he adjusted himself to a comfortable position, Tenma fell asleep. He was not really sleeping though because it would be dangerous if he ended up getting into a deep slumber and suddenly wake up in the middle of dangerous situation.

Luck might not be with him though because when he finally able to rest for a few hours, the swordsman woke up because he heard a cracking sound. ‘Great…’ He murmured before preparing himself to fall alongside the trunk, bumping on the ground before maneuvering himself to sit down slowly. He checked himself and he was not wounded, only small cuts but time would heal him. Looked like luck had not abandoned him fully at all, but maybe not… A woman was holding a sword and beside her was a big canine that looked ready to devour anyone. He watched the woman practicing with her sword and Tenma could tell that she was not used to hold a sword before, her technique was sloppy and she couldn’t even hold to sword right. “Excuse me…” Tenma stayed still, sitting on the ground while sending a friendly smile towards the woman.

“Ah, forgive me. I am alright.” Tenma smiled brighter than before as he took the woman’s hand, but he made sure that he stood up by himself so the woman wouldn’t be pressured to help and lift him up. As soon as he got up, he would pat his blazer and trousers to keep it clean before looking at the woman who had this beautiful platinum blonde hair color. Her eyes were red though… just like one of the eye that was covered behind his eyepatch but he was sure that she was not the same like him although her vibe was kind of different than an ordinary human. “Are you training with your sword?” The black haired male asked as he tilted his head while staring at the canine and turned his gaze into the woman’s sword. “I apologize if I sound rude, but is it your first time holding a sword? You seemed more like a person who used to tame a beast…” He was curious about the red eyed woman, she was holding a fine looking sword but it seemed that she didn’t know how to use it properly, let alone attacking someone with it.

“My name is Hua Yang, a traveler. What is your name, milady?” He put his right hand to his left side chest, giving a formal greeting to the woman. Although, he knew that he should get going to where Solomon would be as soon as possible, but perhaps being a little bit late would be okay. He suddenly became more interested to this woman’s progress with the sword so he might just go as far as teaching her how to wield sword properly. “Would you let me train you?” He said as he kept smiling before reaching out his hand to the woman, hoping the woman would place her hand on his palm and accepting his offer. It would be his first time training a woman though, but it would be interesting…

Tenma chuckled, he didn’t have a lot of time to be honest but he was willing to be late to help this woman on how to properly wield a sword. “Don’t worry, milady. I have plenty of time, although it might be not much. But I am sure that I can teach you some swordplay in a short time.” The black haired would then pulled his sword, but didn’t remove the sheath as he only did it to show his Katana to the woman. “There are many swords with different shape, mine is called as a Katana and I made my fighting style to match this Katana. Even though I can easily handle another type of sword as well…” He would caress his Katana slowly, cherishing it before putting it back to hang on the side of his waist. The man would then kneel down before observing the woman’s sword, he could feel something that was not ordinary from the sword and was pretty sure that this sword was infused with magic. Perhaps it would be better if he taught her how to use the sword to its full potential as well, but first, he would teach her the basic.


“The first thing that you need to do is to setting up your stance and knowing the proper way to hold a sword. If you could do it, then swinging it must be easier.” Tenma explained before moving closer to the girl, “Excuse me.” The man stood from behind the woman and carefully grab her hand that was holding a sword before pulling another hand to hold the grip of the sword as well. He would adjust Diana’s to grip the sword properly, so her right hand would be gripping the upper side of the sword’s grip while the left hand would be holding the lower side.  “Like that, remember, right hand on the top, left hand on the bottom. You are not necessarily need to use both hand, but at least you will know how to use both hand and one hand to hold the sword.” He would explained it to the girl slowly and made sure she hold it right before moving away from her a little bit. He would be focusing on her stance now, correcting it and explaining her about the stance before telling her to not move so her body could remember the stance.


After a few minutes passed, the swordsman would ask Diana to lift her sword upwards before swinging it down. As she did, Tenma watched and noted that she could do it but she needed to put more strength to the swing. “It was good, but you need to stay calm and put more strength inside. Do 20 swings now…”

Diana’s first strike was kind of wobbly and Tenma noticed that the woman might be nervous, her body language from when he asked if she was training her sword was showing it as well. She was not sure about it, yet she wanted to learn even though she had no idea on how to learn the path of the sword except to swing it. He waited, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he observed Diana’s movement as she swung the sword. ‘Hmmm…’ It was a sloppy swing, but the more she swing her sword, the more confident she became. The movement became better as well and Tenma was certain that the woman was a quick learner as long as someone guided her right.

When the blonde asked her about her progress, the swordsman chuckled before approaching the girl and leaned closer. He would reach his hand and put it on Diana’s head, slowly ruffling her hair for a few second. “Good work, you did good.” He stepped back right after and smiled brightly at Diana, wanting her to do more swings so she can get used to it. “You will need to do more swings though and keep reminding yourself about the right stance. Also, you need to be more confident. I am here to teach you, not to judge you. Trust your sword and it will trust you back.” His words might not made any sense, but he believed it himself. A sword was not just a mere tool, it was the user’s limb and sometime some people consider it as part of their soul. “Now I will increase the number, hopefully you can’t bear it. Do 50 swings from up to down and continue with 25 upper left to down right swings, also 25 upper right to down left swings.”

Once she started doing it, not only he observed her movement again but he also thought about something that she needed to do. He didn’t know about her stamina, so that swings would help him to measure it. He would give her some physical training if needed, but he would wait until she was done swinging those hundred sword slashes.

Diana clearly had a lot of stamina so probably the physical training wouldn’t be needed, she just need to get more training in swordsmanship also maybe if she was interested, some basic martial arts. The moment she stuck the sword into the ground, Tenma would chuckle and asked her teasingly, “Tired?” He wanted to see how she reacted but he wouldn’t ask her to do more swings for today maybe, unless she wanted to do more. The woman did a very good improvement though, managed to make her body get used to the stance and the sword’s swinging although her concentration might be bad in the last minutes. Oh well, it could be trained later.

The sky was darkened and perhaps it would be better for them to find a nice place for a shelter, but then Diana asked him something that made Tenma laughed a little. “Not really, not too often as much as I know. Although I am travelling a lot, so I am not sure. But yes, Reim is a little bit dry, isn’t it?” The black haired man smiled to the red eyed woman before reaching out his hand again, asking for her hand. “We would have to go find a shelter now, shall we move now?”

Once they found a shelter, the man would leaned against the wall and said, “I am guessing that you seldom fight with your own fist mostly? Forgive me if I am wrong though, but I am very interested in seeing your strength. It feels different.” He chuckled and shook his head, he would silently waiting for the rain to finish soon unless the woman started a conversation with him.

The black haired man would continue to train the blonde girl right after that, but he would make her meditate beside him as he guided her to match their breathing properly. They would mostly meditate together and Tenma would teach her some stances for Diana to be able to fit herself in the path of swordsmanship. As much as he wanted to teach her some of his moves, he though that maybe it would be better for the girl to find her own move but for now perhaps he should just continue to teach her the basic.

As expected for the half Fanalis to be able to have a natural battle skill and fast learning over something about fighting, although she was a halfling but Tenma notice that she had the strength of a pure Fanalis. After two week passed, the swordsman wondered if Diana would like to do more training. If she agreed then they would do around two weeks training again, but the black haired man couldnt just made a decision by himself like that. "Say, Diana, would you like to do more training? I think we can use this training to figure out your own fighting style." He smiled kindly, he remembered that he needed to teach her on how to use the magic function of the sword as well if she had not known about how to use it yet. Then perhaps some sparring together would be good... He began to plan all the training method that he wanted to implement for Diana, but of course he needed the woman's answer first.

If she agreed, then Tenma would begin to give her more training. Their first week would be more focused on the basic again as well as the sword's technique, while the second week would be for the defensive move, using the magic in the sword and sparring session. They would start the first day by meditating first, matching their breathing together. Tenma would spent several hours to meditate before he got up and waited for Diana to finish so they can start another session. “Although I said that this training would help to figure out your own fighting style, most of sword’s style was made by copying the other style or to counter it.” Tenma would put his hand on the sheathe of his Katana, getting himself ready. “I am using something that you can say as an eastern style, but I am perfecting it more to match with my own style. However, since you are from Reim, western style might be better.” His pulled a bit of his Katana from his sheathe, signaling Diana to get ready and prepare her sword as well.


“You are fast enough so perhaps you need a technique that can deal a huge damage that can match with your strength.” Tenma would begin to lift his sword before he readied it in front of himself, pointing the blade upwards. After that, he would begin to walk towards a tree and while still in the same stance, the black haired man put down his sword before suddenly striking the tree from lower left into the upper right side, cutting the tree down. “Just like that, keep practicing the slashes but put more strength into the sword, think of it as your hand. And make it as if you are trying to cut something with your own ‘hand’” After that, he would point a tree near them and said, “When you are ready, try cutting this tree down. It is quite thick but we might need to cut it into a wood log so we can use it later.”

The next day will be starting with another meditation as well and they would follow the same training but this time, he would make Diana focused on practicing another kind of slash. He showed another move by swinging his sword from above, sending a wave-like wind that was produced by his slash. “You should be able to make stronger wind than me, go ahead and try it.”

The rest of the week would be the same, he would teach Diana some new moves that would be focusing on dealing heavy damage by showing it to her first so she could follow after. He was kind of hoping that she could improvise the moves and surprised him later in their sparring. At the beginning of the second week, Tenma would stand beside the woman and asked her to show her sword before telling her to be in an offensive stance. “Do you know how to pour a magoi into your sword? Because this sword isnt just an ordinary sword…” If she didnt know how to do it, Tenma would began to instruct Diana to hold the sword tightly and concentrated, after that he would wait until Diana was ready.

“Magoi is the energy from your body, the more focused you are… you will be able to control the flow of magoi. Perhaps not as good as how magician could control theirs to cast spells, but if we do it right, we are capable to create a magic from a magic weapon like you had or even perform a magoi manipulation move when you are stronger later.” The black haired man slowly explained to her, trying not to use difficult wording because he wanted her to understand quickly, not because he underestimate her.

He was amused by the fact that Diana was capable to do it, but seeing her reaction was entertaining. “Don’t stop.” Tenma said while he chuckled before positioned himself behind Diana, “Excuse me.” He said, asking for permission as he leaned closer to the woman before gripping both of her hands which were holding the sword. His back would be pressed against Diana’s back and she could hear his normal paced heartbeat as well as his breath on her ears as he spoke. “Don’t be surprised, it was the power of the sword. Do it again but this time concentrate more and keep yourself calmer.”

Once Diana managed to do it, he will train her more for a week about the magic weapon and some little sparring to make her get used to the swordsmanship. At the end of their training, the black haired man was interested to invite her to join Solomon as well as to see more of her growth because he found her as a very interesting warrior. “Say, do you have somewhere that you want to go after this? Would you like to come with me to meet this interesting person? He kind of needing some more support. I won’t force you if you say no though.” The swordsman chuckled and leaned against the tree as he waited for her to answer. He wouldn’t anything more about it though unless she asked about it.

When the woman wanted to loosen away from Tenma, the swordsman wouldn’t force her to stay still and smiled as he stepped back once. “I understand, go ahead.” He said as he nod before staring intensely to the red eyed woman as if he wanted her to prove that she really was able to do it by herself. The training went well so far and just like Tenma guessed, the girl was a fast learner as well. It would be a waste if Tenma didn’t see how Diana could develop her strength more, so when she said she would stick together with him, it made the swordsman gave a bright smile as a signal that he was pleased. Although the reason why he was so interested to her was because of her beast like strength, something that he wanted to learn more. He didn’t think that it had the exact similarity with his own abnormality, but in one way and another, it felt a little bit similar as they said that Fanalis could be a fierce beast sometime. Just like how he could be a blood thirsty beast when he gave in to the urge…

“Oh, to make a country. Hope you don’t mind.” The swordsman explained short with a smile still attached on his face as he packed up his own belongings. “Shall we go?"

[exit]


OOC: Let's start new thread before we join Solomon and Endolf so Tenma and Diana can know each other more :3