17 Chapter 17: The Basics of Onmyodo
"Now that we know whose Spirit you inherited, we can change your training into something more fitting," Hachiman said as we once again stood in our empty corner of Kuoh Park.
"What will we be working on anyway?" I asked the God of Archery, "I know he's a powerful swordsman, but I don't know anything supernatural that he might have known about,"
Hachiman grunted and stomped on the ground, a small wooden table appearing between us.
"Swordsmanship comes to you naturally," He said as a paintbrush appeared on the table with several paper slips, "Let's see if Calligraphy does as well,"
Looking at the brush on the table, I sat down and picked it up.
"Not going to question it?" Hachiman asked as he looked down at me.
I shook my head, "I'm assuming this has something to do with the magical paper that I saw in my dream,"
Hachiman grunted and sat down on the other side of the table, "Correct, While Watanabe-No-Tsuna wasn't the best there was in utilizing Onmyodo Talismans, he still had some talent in them. Here we are checking to see if you have something similar," he explained before producing a paper talisman from out of nowhere and placing it on the table.
"This is one of the most basic talismans you can learn," He pressed an armored finger on the paper, "It is simply used to deter and keep away evil spirits,"
I nodded as I looked at the Talisman.
"I want you to copy this talisman over to your paper, You have one hour to get this right before we move to our next task," My eyes widened as Hachiman placed a time limit on this exercise.
"Wait-"
"Your timer starts NOW!" And with a slap of his hand on the ground, an hourglass appeared on the table, the grains of sand quickly falling.
I carefully looked at the paper Talisman he placed on the table in front of me, A cursive symbol painted on the paper pulled my eye towards it.
My hand moved to the brush, looking for any kind of paint to use before I heard a dripping noise.
Looking at the brush, I saw it already inked and wet, ready for use.
I grabbed a blank paper slip and placed it before me, the talisman Hachiman produced beside it, and I started copying the symbol from the Talisman onto the paper.
A gentle stroke of a brush, the calm breeze of the spring wind, and the warm touch of the sun on my back. My hand moved almost fluidly as I worked the brush over the paper, everything was on the wrist.
And then the Paper exploded into smoke.
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The God of War and Archery looked on as his student rolled out of the cloud of smoke and started coughing on the ground. With a wave of his hand, the smoke vanished.
"Try Again," Hachiman told Motohama Ken, "Your Calligraphy was good, For an illiterate fool that is."
He stepped closer to the table and looked at the soot-smeared paper Talisman.
"Your brush strokes are uneven, You misspelled the second Kanji, and the paper itself is upside down," The god told the Human, pointing out all the places he got it wrong.
"Try Again."
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After forty minutes, and a dozen more failures, a success appeared.
The moment the symbol on the Spirit Repelling Talisman was correctly copied onto the blank paper talisman, the Ink on the paper momentarily glowed silver before it returned to black.
Hachiman hummed in approval at the successful Talisman, looking over to the now soot and ash-covered Human sitting on the ground below him.
"You are sweating," The god pointed out as he watched the boy, "You have only done 15 Talismans and you're already sweating," He reached down and picked up the only successful Talisman.
"We will be making sure by the time I'm done with you, You'll be able to write one hundred of these in a single hour without running out of Magic," He waved his unoccupied hand in the air, and the grass below him shimmered with a red glow.
Motohama Ken looked in awe as the God of Archery once more created a living statue with minimal effort.
"Let us see how well you've done," Hachiman said as he pressed a finger onto the back of the Jade Golem's head, a red glow appearing in the eyes of the green statue.
The Statue roared to life in anger, Its previously Regal Samurai-looking body twisting and turning into that of a vagrant, Jade robes resembling a traveler's Yukata twisting into tattered rags, The Katana on the Statues hip changing and twisting into a sword-sized Butcher's knife.
Even the Mask covering the bottom half of the Statue's face, resembling that of an Oni, seemed to meld into the Body of the Jade Golem, giving its previously Human appearance that of an angered Demon of green stone.
"Woah! Wait-" Ken yelled as he rushed to his feet and away from the roaring Golem, trying to reach for his Blade resting on the nearby tree.
But he didn't need it as Hachiman slapped the Talisman onto the Statue's head, watching uncaring as it crumbled to green dust.
"Good Job," The God said in his normal tone of voice, "You managed to create a successful Talisman," He waved his armored hand in the air and cleared the jade dust from the park.
"So... I did it?" Ken asked, a small smile growing on his face.
"You still failed," Hachiman's words wiped the smile off the young human's face, "It took you nearly fifty minutes to get a single successful Talisman, Even a child could do better. A Second failure of yours was the placement of your Blade."
The God turned to the tree the Sword was laying against, still a length away from Motohama Ken.
"Any Warrior worth his salt has his weapon at arms reach at all times. The fact you had to stand up and run for your sword is a failure in and of itself," Hachiman spoke sternly to the young Human, his armored body towering over the middle-schooler.
"Sorry..." Ken mumbled an apology before quickly moving to grab his sword, keeping it close to him.
"Do not apologize for not knowing," The God told him, his tone of voice softening somewhat, "It is my duty as your teacher to make sure you learn these things,"
Ken nodded his head in understanding, Still holding the sword's sheath in his left hand.
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Sitting down in front of the low table once more, I watched Hachiman create more blank Paper talismans.
"This week we will be working almost exclusively on Onmyodo, Regardless of Watanabe-No-Tsuna's usage of the art, it is a tool that will be most important for you should you wish to survive in this world," The God sat down on the other side of the table.
"Why Onmyodo in particular?" I asked the God, "Not that I'm complaining, learning all this magic stuff is cool and all, But wouldn't more work on my Sacred Gear and Swordsmanship be better?"
Hachiman shook his head as he procured another copy of the Anti-Evil Spirit Talisman.
"Onmyodo is a System of Magic that is easy to teach yet hard to master, It is a perfect place for beginners like you to start their journey into the mystic arts." He said as more paper talismans appeared between his fingers.
"From banishing Spirits to fending off demons," He threw the slips of paper between his armored fingers into the air, watching as they each transformed.
One Burst into Flames, One Turned into a spray of water, One became a vine and wrapped around the tree branch above him, One became metal and cut the vine like a knife, and one exploded into a shower of dirt and small rocks.
"Onmyodo is the perfect mixture of offense, defense, and utility, for a Human to learn when introduced to the Supernatural," He waved his hand again and all the talismans disappeared, the dirt and rocks vanished, the water dried up, the vine shriveled away and the metal paper rusted and flew into the wind.
"And for you specifically it will be a most useful tool until you properly manage to control your Sacred Gear," Hachiman pointed out before waving his hand once more, a photo appearing in his hand.
"Because this weekend-" He handed me the photo to look at.
It was that of an old and abandoned apartment building, graffiti covered the walls, and windows were shattered after years of Homeless people using the place as a shelter.
The place looked horrible.
"-You will be starting your first official Shin-Corp mission," Hachiman finished, and it took me a moment to register his words.
"WHAT?!"
The God nodded his head at me, "I know you heard me so I will not repeat myself, Your partner from the Shinto-Celtic exchange program has already arrived, the two of you will be working together to evict the Spirits and Yokai who took over the Yamakabuki Apartment Complex." He said calmly.
"With Onmyodo, you'll be able to defend yourself against some more powerful Spirits who will not be affected by your sword."
I looked at the picture again, my brain working a mile a minute just thinking of how bad this could go.
"Couldn't you, I don't know, Allow my sword to hit ghosts instead?" I asked, hoping for the God of Archery to give me a little treat to make this coming weekend easier.
Hachiman didn't make a noise, but the way his shoulders moved up and down almost made it seem like he was laughing.
"Nice try, Motohama Ken. Now allow me to educate you on the basics of Onmyodo," The God almost seemed cheerful to watch my face crumble down in despair.
At least he let me keep the Paintbrush.
