Shayde the ninja, ronin, samurai chronicles (quests I, II, III)

Kuna had returned from his meeting with Hembree with the little ghostly lion in tow. His gear that he had been carrying around was now stored within the creature who seemed of few words, but it seemed like he would obey Kuna regardless. The lion didn't look like he didn't need anything, so he would have just gone to bed since he had classes early the next morning. He had made plans though too see what the true extent was of the creatures abilities and how much he could truly exploit them. A little smile curled his lips as he stood up and went to bed because it would be a big day tomorrow.

The rays of morning light shined down upon Kuna and forced him awake from his deep sleep. His blue eyes immediately situated upon the ghost which was lying down on the floor next to him asleep. Kuna would just give a shake of his head as he pulled the covers away and stood up in his boxers. A quick shower and change of clothes later would see him out the door with the ghost in tow behind him. The creature being intangible would sink down into the ground next to him, which was rather neat little trick for keeping itself unnoticed by others. The next two hours were devoted too his classes at the university, and he would find himself back at his apartment having Tomo swallow up various supplies for another trip back into the forest. He figured that was the best place too go too train and see the full extent of Tomo-kuns power.

He would pick up his phone and make a call too a cab service. "I'll need to get a car of my own, maybe a bike." Kuna would say to himself scratching his chin. His contemplation of cars and bikes would end once he saw the yellow taxi cab pulling up into his apartment complex. Tomo-kun would come with him taking shelter this time inside of Kuna's body...which was awkward for him to say the least. He would get into the cab and give directions for him to take him out too the edge of the city limits.

A short trip later, Kuna would step out of the vehicle and give the man the cab fare with a little bit more as a tip for the good service. He would stop to stretch his limbs as the cab pulled away leaving him alone. Tomo-kun would drift out of his body and float there at his side. He would make his way too a good sized boulder and would give the order too Tomo-kun who would swallow it whole without any complaint. Kuna just gave a snort of approval before giving a shake of his head in amusement. "This could have great tactical abilities." Kuna mused to himself. He would decide to test the rest of Tomo-kun's abilities at a later date and began his trek through the woods. He was proceeding through his peaceful stroll through the woods when he a man with a lower elastic mask on his face appeared out of the shadows and stood in front of his path.

Kuna would take several steps back as he looked at the man wondering just what in the hell was happening. "You are the man I am looking for! Prepare yourself!" The masked man would say in a deep and gravelly voice. Tomo-kun would appear before him and spit out his Garand fully loaded. The man squatted down his hand reaching up too his shoulder where he had a sword handle sticking out. He must not have noticed it until now because of the shadows. The man though stood up and the tension immediately drained away. "Huh, your not the person I have a bounty on." He would say with a twinge of disappointment. Kuna would breath a sigh of relief.

"I take it that you are a bounty hunter of some sort?" He asked to which the man responded with a nod of his head. "Perhaps, you have seen my bounty?" He would ask offering up a description of the man he was hunting. Kuna would scratch his chin in thought before saying, "That sounds like the description of the cabbie who drove me out here." There is a gas stop not far from where he dropped me off, so he is probably there filling up his gas tank." The man would scratch his cheek in thought before giving a nod of thanks and dashing past him.

It would be a split second decision for him, but he would pivot on his heels and immediately chase after the bounty hunter. He wasn't as skilled as the other man was in running, but he was able to keep up as he let Tomo-kun reabsorb the Garand into its pocket dimension. Twenty minutes later of furious running, Kuna would catch up with the masked man as he was at the gas stop with the cabbie trussed up like a big and over his shoulder unconscious. The man would turn towards Kuna who had planted his hands against his knees and was taking in deep breaths. "Forgot to say, the name is Shayde kid, and thanks for the help. Keep this as a token of my esteem." He would say tossing Kuna a scroll which he barely caught. He would unfurl it and see it was blank, when he looked up too say anything Shayde was gone.

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He had a rather odd encounter with that man, the one who wore a black mask and carried a sword strapped to his back. There was just something about him that itched in the back of Kuna's mind which kept making him want to go back too the place he had encountered that strong individual and see if he could divine a way of getting some training out of him. Midterms had snuck up upon him though preventing him from taking any time out too try too find the person, and he really needed to study for his quantum physics course. He wasn't sure why he wanted to take it in the first place, but Kuna had thought it would be a good class to expand his horizons, that and it would probably help out with his work at Nyte industries.

The next few days would be a cram session of epic proportions as he studied for all of his tests and then the actual tests themselves. It would be next week before he finally had the time too return too the same spot in which he had met Shayde. He stood there on the forest path with Tomo-kun floating silently beside him. Kuna would kneel down to get a look at the well worn path which he had trod a week earlier. He would stand up stretching before resuming his hike along the path. His senses would be attuned to hear just about anything since there were many dangerous creatures deep inside of the forest.

His steps would then take him too a small meadow with a semi-circle of large stones in the middle. They looked deliberately placed there in his eyes. "Probably used for some type of ritual." Kuna said too the ever silent Tomo-kun, who merely scratched the back of its leonine head. The blond would step into the semi circle and turn to face one of them, and with a blurring shadow there was Shayde standing on top one of the stones looking down at Kuna. "Hm, it seems you've found me again. Its dangerous to go walking around here you know." Shayde would say looking down in a bored manner at the university student.

The blond just gave a little smile at that. "I was hoping you could tell me more about the scroll you gave me. I wrote something on it in the off chance and five minutes later the writing disappeared, so I was hoping you could tell me the purpose of the scroll was." Kuna would say pulling out the scroll that Shayde had given too him prior, and he was hoping for a straight answer and not like the rambling he had gotten from Hembree.

There was a little bit of mirth to be seen in the eyes of Shayde as he regarded Kuna and the scroll. "Its a ninja, samurai, ronin scroll which true power can only be unlocked if you use an esoteric technique to unlock its true potential. I wouldn't be adverse to taking you under my wing for a bit of training, could enjoy the break actually." Shayde would say.

*Ninja, samurai, ronin.....and a bounty hunter to boot....weird.* Kuna would think in his mind before regarding the proposal that Shayde was offering him. He was deeply suspicious of the offer, something in the back of his mind was against taking it up for some reason. He pushed that suspicion, but Kuna made a mental note in his mind to schedule an appointment with a therapist. "Sure, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try." Kuna would say too Shayde.

"Good, I was hoping you would take me up on the offer." Shadye would say his hands blazing into different hand positions before slamming his hand onto the ground, which caused a flash of white light too emanate from Shayde. The light engulfed both him and Tomo-kun before fading away to show them in a picturesque meadow, the semi-circle of stones was gone, leaving Shadye standing on the ground. "Welcome too my little pocket dimension, we will be spending the next six months of excruciating training, but once we are finished you will be able to replicate the seals that I just did and use magic without having to chant it." He would say, which did intrigue Kuna immensely to which he would immediately agree too the training.

The next three months was grueling like Shayde had promised. His food intake was limited to just rice and water, and much of the time was spent upon meditation and centering his chi along with the proper formation of the hand seals. He would absorb all of this information in the first three months of his training and gain the ability too perform hand seals in lieu of chanting.

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The three months had been grueling in the extreme and had pushed Kuna's body too its limit and beyond. Shayde though did not seem to break a sweat during all of the exercise, which seemed to have grated upon Kuna's mind, but the training had forged his body into a well honed machine capable of now mastering his chi. He could use intricate hand seals in lieu of chanting the words for particular spells, with great speed too. Kuna was particularly proud of that ability.

He was sitting having just finished his bowl of rice and the glass of water that accompanied it, and he was looking forward too going back too the city and finally having some normal food. His mouth practically watered at the thought of steak. His daydreams of food were interrupted by Shayde's appearance before him. "Three months have passed and you have mastered the hand seals that I taught you, but here comes the real fun. I told you about the scroll and the esoteric ritual that is needed to unlock its powers." Shayde would pause to scratch his chin underneath his elastic mask.

Kuna would lean forward very intent to see where this conversation would lead. Shayde would remain quiet for several more seconds before speaking. "The true purpose of the scroll is too create an intricate and ancient text, which forges a contract between the holder of the scroll and an animal from the mystic kingdom of animals. That allows you too summon one particular animal, which is quite larger then its normal kin. The real work is of course writing out the intricate wording that invokes the proper contract with the beast, and then using up vast amounts of spiritual power too actually bring the beast too you." Kuna would be listening in rapt attention to Shayde's explanation. He would look over too Tomo-kun who would promptly disgorge the scroll from its pocket dimension.

He would pick up the scroll as Shayde produced another identical scroll. The ninja would take out a small ink pen and begin making an elaborate scrawling lettering. Kuna's pale blue eyes would be focused upon the writing. Shayde would finish the last elaborate letter and form a few hand seals causing the bluish glow of spiritual energy to envelope his hand before slamming it onto the scroll. The light of Shayde's hand would infect the letters and the scroll itself before a spidery script erupted from it and began shooting away, but it would stop several yards away before contracting back towards the scroll.

A large blast of smoke would erupt from the scroll obscuring Kuna's vision for several moments. "What the hell happened?" He would say between fits of coughing. The smoke would clear up soon enough to reveal the answer. They were standing several stories up in the air, the most startling thing was the fact they were standing on top of a massive frog. "Holy crap!" Kuna would say in astonishment as he looked over too Shayde who had a look of mirth in his eyes. "This is Genjuro, one of the creatures that I have a contract to summon here." He would lean down to pet the top of the frogs head. There would be a distorted mumbling from the creature. "Genjuro here doesn't like to be summoned for mere training exercises, but he can bear with it." Shayde would say suddenly dismissing the frog and causing them to fall down too earth, but oddly Kuna was not hurt by the fall. "Remember its my personal alternate dimension, I can alter it however I want." Shayde would say before reaching into his pocket and producing a slip of paper. He would make out another name out of the flowing and ancient script, then handed it too Kuna. "The hand seals for a large part do not matter, they just merely serve as a focus for your spiritual energy. The real trick is the ancient strip which you need to master for each individual name, so that you can summon the creature correctly, else it won't work." Shayde would explain along with all of the limitations of the technique. He would then walk back into the forest and let Kuna begin his studying.

Those next three months would have him replicating the ancient script over and over again, while at the same time receiving instruction upon the ancient language, which he would need if he wanted to forge more contracts with other animals. It was like the first three months of grueling work, but in a much different way. The work was in many ways like his classes. The studying paid off though in the end when Kuna finally got the approval from Shayde to try the technique out for the very first time.

He would unfurl the scroll and with a ball point pen would produce that same flowing script that Shayde had shown him several hundred times before. Kuna's letters were a perfect reproduction, and the first phase of the technique was complete. He would have his hands produce the same hand seals that Shayde had shown him before causing his right hand to glow with his own spiritual power before he slammed his hand down upon the scroll causing it too be infused with his chi. The same spidery script, which he now noticed was the name of the creature repeated over and over again was shot out in spidery lines of script before collapsing back in on themselves and producing the same fountain of smoke.

The smoke would clear up soon enough revealing Kuna to be standing on the head of a gigantic bear. The Urisine's pale golden eyes would look up too see its summoner standing on top of it. "Hmm, its nice to met you little one. I have accepted your contract and will allow you too summon me in your times of need. The name is Ursiel by the way." The massive bear would say before settling down and letting Kuna off its massive head. Kuna would make a hand seal and dismiss Ursiel to back wherever he had summoned him from.

Shayde would appear out of the woods giving a little clap, too which Kuna would bow too his teacher. "Your training has come too and end, and you have learned all that you needed too from me. Oh, and you don't have to worry about six months having past outside of this realm, this place runs on a extremely accelerated time frame, so no more then a minute has passed." Shayde would say forming the hand seals in quick succession and the light would engulf Kuna once more and deposit him in front of the meadow he was standing in.

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