Blades part-1

Inside the walls of Ryozanpaku Ohma and Kenichi were walking around as Kenichi brought up the fight from earlier.

"I don't see what you're so confused about," Ohma told him.

"It's just, I don't get how you were so calm back there?" Kenichi admitted. "That was a real knife he was holding yet you were acting like it didn't even faze you."

Ohma stopped and then so did Kenichi as he asked him. "Don't tell me; You're afraid of knives?" He guessed.

Kenichi looked down, not wanting to say it but unable to deny it. "I'm scared enough in a normal fight and sure wasn't prepared for that."

"Yeah, I noticed that when I saw your knees shaking." Ohma bluntly responded.

"Weapons are scary alright!" Kenichi snapped.

"Kenichi, to you a lot of things are scary." Ohma stretched his neck. "Besides, you really think that's the first time somebody's pulled out a weapon on me? Or do think it'll be the only time for you?"

"Kgh…" Kenichi stiffened. "I… didn't want to think about it. Besides, if you ignore a problem long enough it'll eventually go away… Right?"

"Of course, it won't," Ohma said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The longer you avoid a problem the bigger it grows until it grows into something way beyond your control, that's why you gotta deal with it now."

"But how am I supposed to do that?" Kenichi asked, now more worried. "I don't know anything about weapons or the people who use them."

"Are you forgetting where we are?" Ohma pointed out. "There's someone living at this Dojo that can teach you about weapons, remember?"

As he said that, Shigure appeared behind them by the door to the Dojo. Not noticing her, Kenichi rested his chin on his hand and thought about the advice he was given. "Hmm, Akisame-sensei might be able to teach me a few pointers."

Ohma blinked. "Wait, what?"

SLASH!

As if to demonstrate her abilities, Shigure used the Sword on her back to cut the sliding door of the Dojo to pieces. Still not noticing her, Kenichi still pondered. "Yeah, you're right. Knowing the way he works he'll probably make me do some freaky exercise I don't understand."

Shigure then appeared in front of Kenichi but Kenichi turned around and again and still didn't see her as she brought out a chain-sickle and was demonstrating her skill with it.

Kenichi placed a hand over his brow. "Kensei? It'd be too embarrassing to ask him."

Ohma looked back and forth from Kenichi to Shigure. "You cannot be serious right now?"

"Oh yeah, maybe Sakaki would work." Kenichi figured, still oblivious. "Yeah, that's it, I bet he's dealt with his fair share of weapons."

Ohma just stared blankly at Kenichi. "How dense are you?"

Kenichi looked confused. "Huh, what are you talking about?"

Ohma just sighed and walked past him to stand in front of Shigure. "Go ahead."

Shigure nodded as the weapons Master placed a small grain of rice on the centre of Ohma's forehead. Kenichi turned around to see and finally noticed Shigure as she unsheathed her blade and slashed at the rice grain while he didn't even try to move.

SLASH!

"Gaahhh!" Kenichi shrieked and fell off his feet. "What are you!?"

Miu arrived at the point and looked afraid as well. "Shigure! What do you think you're doing?!"

Shigure sheathed her weapon. "Just… Practising is all."

"The better question is, why are you two throwing a hissy fit?" Ohma asked, turning to face them.

"S-Ohma? You're okay?" Kenichi asked, amazed and relieved.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Ohma questioned.

"Why? She just swung a Sword at you!" Kenichi yelled upset. "You didn't even try to dodge it so I thought she was going to slash your head open!"

"Close, if I did try to dodge it she would have slashed my head open," Ohma explained to him. "But, since I stayed still and didn't mess up her aim, this was the only thing that got cut." He took the grain of rice off of his forehead and showed it to Kenichi as it was split perfectly in half.

"A True Master of… Weapons does not… Cut anything unless… They intend to…" Shigure commented.

Then out of nowhere, Akisame arrived to join the conversation. "I could be wrong, but it looks to me that Shigure just offered you some personal weapons training." Kenichi gasped as Akisame continued. "When it comes to weapons use, Shigure's skills are unparalleled."

"But I'm not interested in using weapons I just wanna know how to avoid them." Kenichi pointed out.

"Speak for yourself," Ohma argued, looking interested. "Before I learned actual martial arts I used to wild dual knives, but never really had someone to train me with them. So I'll wanna try my hand at this."

Shigure nodded at his request. "Good… We will… Begin right away."

Akisame stroked his moustache. "Well, he definitely has the right attitude."

"I'm still not sure about this," Kenichi noted.

"What happened when you saw that knife?" Akisame reminded him. "You froe up didn't you?"

Once again, Kenichi looked disappointed with himself. "Well, that's one way of putting it."

"What you need is experience, and before you can learn to avoid weapons in a fight you must first become familiar with the weapons themselves." Akisame wisely advised him and Kenichi accepted it.

*************

The five of them went inside the Dojo's training hall as Ohma and Shigure stood before each other ready to face off while Kenichi, Miu, and Akisame sat by the porch to observe, Apachai and Kensei arrived so that they could watch as well.

'This brings back old memories.' Ohma thought, nostalgic about the old times, him as a child trying to survive in Tokita. 'Sometimes I wonder if I miss it.'

"I was a little uneasy with the idea of leaving Shigure totally in charge. So for safety's sake, I decided to watch this one." Miu confessed.

"Apachai thinks watching is a good idea," Apachai added.

"Most definitely." Kensei agreed.

"Hey, she's not going to cut off anything he can't grow back right?" Kenichi asked, fearing for his friend's life.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Shigure won't go that far," Akisame reassured him.

Ohma stood there was his hands in his pockets and asked. "So, what's the first lesson?"

Shigure pulled out a Kodachi from her kimono. "Your first lesson… Using blade… To kill."

Miu immediately blew a whistle to stop her.

"What… Is something wrong?" Shigure questioned.

"Of course there is!" Kenichi snapped at her. "That's way too extreme for a first lesson!"

"Now, now, you two." Akisame stopped them. "Ohma is the one who agreed to the training, so unless he objects you can't really to her."

They both looked to Ohma but he didn't seem bothered. "It's fine by me."

"What? You're okay with this?" Kenichi questioned.

"Weapons at their core are tools used to kill, learning how to use weapons and learning how to kill with them are pretty much the same thing." Ohma summarized.

"Yeah, but…" Kenichi was still worried.

"Relax." Ohma nodded at him as if to say he would be fine. "It's not like I'm actually going to die."

Kenichi gulped but decided to relent and let them proceed. Shigure then threw the Kodachi to Ohma which he caught, then she brought out another one which she planned to use for herself.

"Assume the position," Shigure instructed him.

Ohma stood with his arms down at his side and kept facing her directly. It looked careless at first glance but Shigure could tell what he was doing. A relaxed stance where you kept the body loose and free from tension to be able to move with dashing speed right out the gate—In short, he planned to be the aggressor. Shigure responded by preparing to counter.

"Hah!"

Ohma rushed and made a swing toward Shigure using his blade, the latter remained standing in the same spot also while raising the weapon in her hand. He made a slight motion of the Kodachi in her hand and deflected the strike without an instance of trying at all.

Ohma slashed left and right at Shigure, both times he aimed for her juggler but both times she parried his strikes to the sides, he then shifted his weight forward and moved in for a thrusting attack at her throat, but Shigure easily knocked away his attempted and moved to his righthand side, Ohma immediately followed by pivoting to his right for a side-swiping slash at her. Shigure saw it coming from a mile away and deflected it again.

The others watched their training session on the sidelines watching as Ohma made several slashes aimed at Shigure who continued to deflect each of them without trying.

"Interesting, he's better at this than I was expecting." Akisame evaluated the performance. "Seems he wasn't wrong when he said he knew how to use weapons to a degree."

"But he hasn't landed any hits." Miu reminded him, still unsure about this.

"He's facing Shigure so that should be obvious." Kensei pointed out. "As a Master of Weapons, Shigure is an expert and avoiding blades to the point where they can't even touch her even when facing a Master, so it's obvious a Disciple would never be able to."

"Then what's the point of this training?" Kenichi asked, also worried.

"First she's seeing what level he's currently on, then she'll start the real training," Akisame explained.

"Real training?" Kenichi repeated confused.

"Notice how Shigure hasn't tried to attack him, even once since they started." Akisame pointed out.

Kenichi's eyes widened as he looked again and realized he was right as Ohma was still unable to even land a single strike on the more experienced Weapon Master while she continued blocking or parrying his strikes.

Starting to become frustrated, Ohma rushed forward toward Shigure making another slash aimed at her, but it was averted by the stoic Weapon Master. It was followed up by her moving before Ohma at a speed that he hadn't seen her use until now and took him off guard for a moment. Now right in front of him, she then pointed the Kodachi at his neck.

"You're dead…" Shigure said as Ohma's weapon landed on the ground causing a notable sound.

Ohma gritted his teeth. "Damn it."

"It ended in an instant." Kenichi breathed out, both surprised and amazed.

"Well, that's about as much he can hope for against Shigure." Akisame shrugged. "His mistake was losing his composure."

"Still, it was a good try., Kensei added.

Shigure looked down at the weapon he dropped. "Pick it… Up."

Ohma gladly did so. "Yeah, let's go again."

"Apa, they still going." Apachai noticed.

"Alright, what is going on in here!"

Everyone looked to the side door to see that Hayato had entered and was now in the training hall as well.

"Grandpa?" Miu addressed him.

"So, mind filling me in on what's happing right now?" He requested. After he sat down with the others, Akisame explained to him what was going on and he decided to observe as well. "Ohma, you should know that knives and blades are just empty and are just worthless hunks of metal, as long as you can avoid being hit by them. But the problem is that Shigure is an expert and she never misses her. You're only chance is to observe calmly and wait for an opening."

"This time you need to try fending off Shigure while she's also on the offensive," Kensei informed him.

"Wait, is that safe?" Kenichi asked them.

"Haha, don't worry, it's as safe as everyone else's training methods," Hayato told him with a laugh.

"That just makes me more worried!" Kenichi thought while he sweats a little.

They were facing off again and both raised their knives. This time Shigure attacked first and in an instant, she closed the distance between them and slashed. Unlike Shigure who was easily able to block his attacks, Ohma struggled to block her strike and barely made to parry away her knife before it cut him.

Shigure followed up with a flurry of three slashes at him, one was an upwards thrust near his eye, the second was a straight thrust at his cheek and the third was a slash aimed at his arm. Ohma dodged each by a hair and was still grazed by them and he jumped back to gain some distance.

"Damn, I don't know how but her speed and sharpness are insane." Ohma thought trying to regain the pace. "There's no way able to avoid her or defend for too long, so only one option—Offense is the best defence!"

Ohma charged in to go back on the offensive and unleashed a barrage of thrusts at her similar to a fencer with a Rapier. But Shigure once again showed off her superior ability by blocking, parrying, and, parrying each one. But, while Ohma's attacks weren't reaching her, they were succeeding in making her step back ever so slightly.

But then, with the procession of threading a needle, Shigure saw through all his attacks and thrust her knife forward as well, forcing him to block her strike and thus killing his momentum. Ohma wasn't beaten yet though and he ducked down aims a slash at Shigure's leg which she dodged by jumping and countered by slashing downward at him which he dodged by rolling to the left.

After that, the two of them charged at each other and clashed, looking their blades against each other for a few seconds in a struggle before they both jumped back

The two continued their battle, both of them seemingly on even ground. It was amazing to watch the battle, though it was harder for Kenichi and Miu to tell entirely how the course of the fight was going, the more experienced Masters could see that there truly was a difference in their strength. Shigure tended to move about gracefully, making it difficult for Ohma to attack, though Ohma was having trouble with Shigure's speed and lightness.

Yet while she was had to say on guard and couldn't easily breach his defence she was easily able to parry Ohma's attacks, while it took all of Ohma's strength to try and fend off Shigure's blade.

However, Ohma seemed like he was thinking of something more than just attacking blindly, it was like he was waiting for something. Ohma's true objective was to capture Shigure's focus on only the knife in his hand, to get rid of any thoughts of him attacking her in any other way. That way, he could spring his trap. After a few more seconds, Ohma made his move.

"Now!" Ohma thought, readying himself.

DON!

Ohma swiftly slammed his open-pammed hand onto the tatami mat beneath his feet just as Shigure was going in for another thrust and his strike made the mat rise upwards, covering his body like a shield as it took the hit and Shigure's blade stabbed into it.

Because Shigure's concentration was focused entirely on his knife, she didn't see this coming and was caught off guard for a window of a second which was all Ohma needed as he masterly used his footwork to get around and then behind Shigure and slashed his blade at her. Moving on reflex, Shigure used her knife to block, but this too was a decoy as he once kept her focus on his knife. Thus she doesn't notice his leg kicked out and tripped her over, knocking her off balance as she was about to fall backward.

Seeing the perfect opportunity, Ohma reached into his pocket and took out what he was aiming for the whole time—A second broken knife.

It originally belonged to the member of Ragnarok they fought earlier today but Ohma kept it for himself and what better time is there to bring out a hidden knife than during an actual knife fight.

As Ohma brought it down, intending to stab the unbalanced Ohma was an almost beast-like smirk on his face and sharpness in his eyes. Shigure responded by suddenly moving twice as face as he reached for the sheathed long-Sword on her back and brought it out. Then like the wind, she slashed out a volley of Sword strikes at Ohma.

SLASH!

"Gugggghhh!"

Ohma was knocked up in the air and blown away by the attack as open cuts appeared on his forehead, the side of his neck, his shoulders, his chest, and his stomach blood streamed out from them like rain and he hit the floor with an audible thud.

"…Oops."