Shayde's Quest

Shayde's Quest I

After being gone for 7 days, it was a bit hard to explain things to my mom and girlfriend. Looking Natsuki in the eye was hard after having basically cheated on her with over 50 succubae. On top of that, Goronova was no longer talking to me. Still, I continued to tell myself that it wasn’t my fault since I was trapped. There was only one way out of that lair and it was with my Willy. Still, due to that, I took about a week or so off of doing any major training other than what I could do in my background. I had to perform a normal work week at the studio working as a stunt actor and there were jobs to perform for my uncle, who recently came back into view in my life after taking a brief break. I thought he might be upset due to the fact that I had suddenly stopped working for him, but seemingly that seemed to only be in my mind.

After taking a bit of time off, I decide to go back into the forest to speak to Hembree about training. After getting ready for the day in my house dressing in a pair of gray sweatpants, black long sleeve tee shirt and hoodie matching the pants, I grab my sword and teleport into the forest.

After arriving in the forest, I look around to see Hembree’s stone, but no Hembree. I see someone in the distance, but they were walking in the opposite direction with long red hair, something Hembree didn’t have. Luckily, I felt his presence not too far away from me. With that, I begin jogging towards the woods from that clearing, to the place where I felt him. After entering into the woods and running for some time, I come across Hembree and another individual. They both look in my direction as I make my way to them. I lift my hand up in a greeting as I say, “hey!” In getting closer, Tomo-kun, the spirit sparrow, manifests himself and flies ahead to Hembree. Reaching them, Hembree welcomes me, “Seiki-kun, wasn’t it?” With a smile glad that he remembered my name, I answer, “hai, sifu!” He asks, “How did that quest go?” Turning to the side, my cheeks burn red as I answer, “I overcame… somehow.” He chuckles and answers, “I bet you did.” Motioning to the male with him, he introduces, “this is Shayde.” Turning to this male, I notice him equipped like a ninja dressed in form fitting wear with a cape and a straight blade on his back with a face mask. I give a short bow and greet, “I’m Seiki, nice to meet you.” A grin stretched on my face as I came up since this shinobi looked strong; it is then that I realize I heard the name Shayde before. I admit, “Oh! You’re the guy the sage mentioned!” Hembree smiles and informs Shayde, “this young man fought against the Sea Sage and lived to bring back the scroll.” The ninja seems to take notice of the pendant that I wore at my neck and nods. “I see,” he comments, “and here I thought you were an easy bounty. Very well; it is nice to meet you.” He continues, “I was speaking to Hembree attempting to find a ronin that is being sought by the Sacred Hunters. He is a male of average build with red hair.” My eyes widen as I say, “hey! I saw a guy like that near Hembree’s rock.” Hembree raises an eyebrow, “Hembree’s rock?” Shayde asks, “Take me there! Quickly.” I nod, “hai!” and crouch before rushing off back the way I had come with the ninja following behind me. We make it into the clearing where Hembree’s rock was and I look in the direction I saw him go. I continue moving that way until I sensed someone; it seemed as if the ninja sensed it too. He comments, “so there he is!” The ninja vanishes from beside me, probably something akin to natural godspeed if there were such a thing. I follow behind quickly covering a distance of about 20 yards before I am able to catch up to them. By the time I reach them, Shayde had already beaten the male within an inch of his life and had him hogtied on the ground. I slide to a stop as exclaim, “fast!” Shayde walks over to me and offers something to me with a “thank you for your assistance.” Reaching out, I take what appears to be a scroll from him as I comment, “no… problem.” He holds out his hand and requires, “money…” My eye twitches as I sigh, “is this going to cost $1,000 too?” The ninja nods. I sigh again and reach into my pocket and give him the money. “How am I paying for a gift?...” I ask. He assures me, “it’s not for a gift… it’s for training…”

Shayde's Quest II

The next day I come around to meet up with the ninja known as Shayde for the promised training. I assumed it would be a daylong training process where he showed me a few moves, or we would spar against one another. For this day, I wore attire similar to the previous days. I made sure to get my chores finished early enough while giving my mom a heads up that I would be training. I had family members coming over later via my uncle thanks to a few successful missions I was able to do for him, so I didn’t really worry much about my mom being lonely. It did help some that Akera and Natsuki kept her company at times as well.

I had the scroll with me in my back pocket as I jog through the forest in search of my newest sensei… I had started to collect them almost like trading cards. In my mind, I thought the best way to learn fast was to learn from as many masters as I could; that way I would portray their combined strength rather than being a weak imitation of any single one of them. With that thought process, each of my sensei’s had an important role in my development. I was curious about the scroll in my back pocket and wondered what it had the ability to do; I figured I could ask the ninja when I found him.

Not too long into my journey in the western forest, I come across Shade waiting for me near Hembree Rock. Coming out of the woods in a leap, I land ton his side before standing up and greeting, “yo!” He looks to me and nods, “welcome, my newest disciple.” I stand a couple feet from him, resting my hands behind my neck as I inquire, “where will be we training at today, Sensei… here?” He shakes his head and turns to the side. Her performs several hand seals and then extends both of his palms out, saying something or other no jutsu! A large ‘door’ manifests above and falls from the sky and lands on the ground with a heavy impact. Seemingly set in stone, the door opens to reveal a vortex. He begins walking and fades into the vortex after entering into the door. I blink, “seriously?...” I give a sigh, stating, “oookay…” With that, I begin walking into the door and into the vortex. The door slams shut behind me and then fades from existence.

I step out of the vortex and look around to see a very unworldly scene. The ground seemed to consist of clouds with celestial patterns in the sky and a horizon that stretched out as far as the eye could see, hinting at the infinite. My gaze comes across Shayde who stands before me a few meters away as he informs, “this is my pocket realm. I am the only way in and out of this realm.” That statement made me wonder if my void powers were void in this realm; I wouldn’t test it just yet. He continues, “here we shall train and we shall live… for 6 months…” My eye widen, “sifu… that’s a bit long. I told my mother that I would return tonight! I can’t possibly live here for 6 months… I only brought one change in clothing…” With a glare beaming from above the mask that hid the lower portion of his face, he comments, “a month here is as a minute in the real world, so train at ease.” I blink as I allow that to process, “whoa… really…” So if we left out now, it would be just like when I came in. Figuring that this person didn’t have any reason to lie to me, I decided to take his word for now; after all, I was very trusting. He warns, “this training will be harsh and unforgiving. At times you will want to cry or give up… be warned that if you give up, I shall give up on you and your training shall come to an end. Now, is that understood?” With an arm pump, I lean forwards and nod, “hai, sensei!” He leans back and folds his arms and nods, “good…”

After that introduction, the training started immediately. I found myself training my energy and channeling abilities. In much of the training, I was forced to attempt to channel a spell without words. After that, the ninja told me about the secret of hand seals and from there I had to memorize over a hundred hand seals, each necessary to proceed in my training. The training did not continue until the hand seals were memorized and could be performed flawlessly. Though I was flexible, it took two months of training and practicing night and day just to train my hands to perform the seals precisely and correctly.

During this process, I wasn’t simply alone with the ninja. I also had the company of Tomo-kun, the spirit sparrow, and Goronova, the Sword of Light, who eventually started back speaking with me. In his resounding voice, the sparrow would coax me on in my training and the ruthless physical endeavors that Shayde would require of me. There was much more in the training than the channeling and ki; there was sparring for hours, physical exercises, running and the gambit of things that I would do, but not push myself to the limits like a sensei would. Each night I found myself falling onto the cotton cot used for sleeping like a rock. In her spirit humanoid form, Goronova would allow me to rest my head on her lap while I slept and even showed enough softness to rub my back and support me. Aside from growing stronger in my abilities, after that, a month was spent physically melding and channeling my spells through the seals rather than through words. At the end of the three month period, I found myself able to channel spells with hand seals and no chanting what so ever.

Shayde's Quest III

I lay on my side on the small cot that was allotted to me for sleeping with my head resting in Goronova’s lap as she leans over me. The area I slept couldn’t really be called a hut, since it was more like a half shed. It was a small wooden structure with an open wall that faced out into the cloud like training grounds. My hair stretches across my face as my chest billowed up and down softly with the rhythm of my breath. About five hours had passed since I had gone to sleep; since the skies here pretty much never changed, it was hard to gauge night and day. Goronova wakes up before me, her eyes softly opening before gazing down at my sleeping form. Her hand moves to my face and shifts the hair from it and to the side of my visage as she gives a soft and light smile. The smile fades as she looks up, noticing the arrival of Shade. The ninja stands over us as he comments, “it’s about time. Wake the boy.” With that, he walks off. Goronova watches him walk off before looking down. She touches the side of my face gently as if caressing it and then suddenly lifts had hand up and smacks me. My body leaps up and to my feet standing in my pants and undershirt as I punch to the left and then kick to the side before looking around and then looking down. She stands up casually and walks off stating, “your master said it was time to get up.” Feeling the sting on my face, my hand lifts and rubs it as I complain, “mou… did you have to hit me, though? Girl’s are supposed to be gentler.” She pauses and then turns to me, her face covered in a shadow with her eye glaring red as she inquires, “you don’t think I’m lady like?” Shrinking down, I take back, “no no… you’re the epitome…” She turns around, “good” and continues walking. I shudder slightly, murmuring, “scary…”

By this time, three months had passed and I was able to perform spells with hand seals much like the sage at the archipelago and had increased the skill in my martial arts, something I didn’t think was possible. Luckily this area had a place where I could bath as well as wash my clothes, so I didn’t end up smelling like feet thought much of my training. Oddly enough, it contained a hot springs. Sitting in the springs was also a form of training, since it relaxed my muscles after training.
First things were first; since I had just woke up, I would need something to eat. I follow behind Goronova as she was already heading to the area where the food was prepared; an open fire with a pot over it. Looking around I make the joke, “so what’s for breakfast…” I knew the answer… rice. It was always rice. I promised myself that when I got out of this realm, I would never eat rice again. Reaching the fire pit before me, Goronova prepares a bowl of rice for me and hands it to me by the time I reach her. I give a soft, “thanks,” before I start eating.

“Seiki,” the master’s voice comes from the center of the training area. I see him sitting on his knees with a few scrolls rolled out before him. “Hai hai,” I comment, putting away the rice and jogging over to where he was. When ordered to sit, I sit across from him, looking down at the scrolls before him that were similar to my own. He begins, “the scroll I gave you those months ago has a special purpose. Anything you write on that scroll will vanish…” I attempt to figure out how that could possibly be useful. He explains, “this is because each scroll is reusable.” He continues, “You will now be learning the ancient text. You will need to know the entire alphabet as the first part of your training. In a way… I will be teaching you to read and write all over again.” I ask, “why will I need to learn the ancient text?” He looks up and comments, “because it’s the only one that can be used to summon the animal gods.” I murmur, “animal gods?” I nods, “for your type, it’s easier if I show you. Watch.” He pulls a piece of chalk from under his wrist guard and swiftly transcribes something onto one of the scrolls beneath him. With that, he activates the scroll with a hand seal and slaps down on it. There is a huge puff of smoke accompanied by winds hard enough to slide me back a bit. After the dust and winds clear, I look up to see Shayde standing on the head of a three story serpent. In awe I sit there and look up at him murmuring, “no… no way…” He performs another hand seal and there is a puff of smoke as the creature vanishes and he free falls to the ground where he lands normally. He explains, “you cannot do that, unless you can master the ancient text.”

From there I began my training in the ancient alphabet. It had many more character than the normal alphabet, was complicated and convoluted. As someone who wasn’t naturally skilled as a student, it took a lot of hard work to get down each character of the alphabet as well as its usage and meaning. After learning the ancient alphabet to Shayde’s level of approval, I began my training for summoning. It was a long and arduous process, but I eventually started to get the hang of it and was able to summon small creatures such as mice, birds and insects. As I continued to train and understand the flow of energy, I started to be able to summon larger creatures. In my graduation summoning, I managed to pull off summoning the large snake creature that Shayde had originally showed to me. This process only took an additional three months of training day in and day out.

After summoning the large snake god, Shayde congratulates me and informs that there was nothing else that he could teach me. He told me to go and make good use of my skills when I returned and to always hold a sense of honor and integrity with myself. After gathering my things, Shayde summons the exit and we walk through it to return to the real world. True to his word only six minutes had passed in the normal world since we had gone into his special realm. I give a bow of thanks to my now former master and with that, we part ways as I perform a hand seal and teleport back to the house; it was time to take a short break from training. Training had pooped me out.

Shayde's Quest I - Again

Some time had passed and I felt that I had grown a large amount in a small amount of time. I didn’t really have anything to test it against, since I hadn’t really come in contact with spirits on the level of those that I observed when the city was assaulted, but I viewed that as a good thing. I could train against Izumi Sensei, but with my advanced techniques, I thought a battle with her would go too far. In the back of my mind I thought that I was stronger than her, though I would never be able to fight her at full strength with the intent to defeat her since she was a woman.

After the 6 months, or rather 6 minutes of training with Shayde, I return home and rest for that day. The next day I found myself being called by my Agent and my Uncle. I had to do a money pick up for him in some shady location in the lower commons and after that I had to meet with my Agent to talk about my future projects. Acquiring my uncle’s money actually doesn’t take too long since I was dealing with normal humans and they were getting weaker and weaker as I got stronger and stronger. After getting the money, I stashed it in Tomo-kun’s alternate realm that seemed more convenient than any safe. After that, I make my way, via motorcycle, to the studio where my agent’s office was set up. She was scary as usual, but gave some good news explaining that I would actually have a co starring role in an upcoming martial arts film. The good news lifted my spirits and I left there with a smile on my face and hope in my heart. After that I return home to find my mom and my aunts talking in the living room. I make tea for them and clean up the house while they talk for a while. After cleaning the house and getting the laundry piled up, I make my way to my room where I go and hang out for a bit, checking my email, playing video games and watching television.

The day passes without much happening. The next day, I wake up early in the morning, around the time of dawn. Leaning up in the bed, the sheets slip off of my upper body and my hand rises up and rubs my face lightly. With a light yawn, I murmur, “Time to get up.” With that, I pull the covers from over my body and get out of bed. I proceed in getting ready for the day which included but was not limited to showering, brushing my teeth and hair and dressing in a clean pair of training clothing. I figured I would get off a good jog through the forest before my day really started. With that, I grab my sword, wake up my spirit companion and teleport to the Western Forest.

I jog my normal route around the forest. Normally it took about thirty minutes to complete the route, but I was trying to get it down to twenty. While jogging, I feel a familiar presence. Looking to the side, I see the after image of Shayde as he leaps from a tree and lands to my side, keeping up with my strides while running through the woods. “Good morning, Seiki-kun. I see you’re continuing your training… good!” With a nod, I continue running since he didn’t seem to wish for me to stop, “yeah, just a morning jog. Why are you out here, sifu?” He looks forwards and nods, “I’m seeking another bounty. This time the male has short white hair and wears a crimson cloak. His name is Louki.” I nod and answer, “yosh! I’ll help you search then.” The ninja nods and then vanishes. With that, I continue my current path while pushing my ability to sense in a 360 radius around my body while keeping my eyes out for recent spiritual tracks.

After about ten minutes of actively searching, I come across a presence. Following that lead, I deviate from my route. Moving at a high rate of speed, I quickly approach come across a male matching the sensei’s description. The white haired male was casually walking away in the direction opposite of me. Calling out to him, I yell, “wait!” The male stops and turns his head to the side as he notices me. I come to a stop behind him at a distance of about 10 yards; the green forest surrounding us. I continue, “as you Louki?” The male turns around to me fully and inquires, “what do you need with me? Are you a bounty hunter?” I turn my body to the side and assume my stance as I answer back, “my sifu is seeking the bounty on you. I don’t know about the specifics, but I owe him. Come with me or I’ll be forced to take you out!” The male pauses for a moment and then suddenly begins to laugh. His voice resounds through the forest as he seems to underestimate me. But what worried me more than that was the fact that there was an aura of strength from this guy. I figured he could be very strong. “Tsk…” I grit my teeth as I attempt to size him up. I didn’t see any openings in his stance. He seemed casually ready for any type of attack. I crouch slightly as tension builds in my back leg, preparing for an offense. Suddenly I feel the spiritual signature of Shayde. I look in the air to see him descending on the target. A sweat drop slides down the side of my head as I Shayde tear the bounty apart. The side of my shirt slides down my shoulder as my mouth is gapped open with Tomo-kun flapping and coming to my side informing in a deep and resounding voice, “While you had him distracted, I went back and got the ninja!” I turn and look to the bird and complain, “but I was looking for a fight!” The bird looks to the side and bellows, “I guess it couldn’t be helped.” I reach for and chase the bird around asking, “What do you mean it couldn’t be helped? You could have totally helped it!” Shayde calls out “Seiki!” I stop immediate and salute, “hai!?” Looking at him, I see that he had already beaten and tied up the target. I blink as a sweat drop slides down the other side of my head, “no… no way… I thought he was strong.” Shayde assures, “he was, it took me 5 seconds longer than I wanted to fight in order to subdue him.” The side of my lip twitches slightly as I murmur, “oy… that’s not natural…” Shayde continues, “thank you for your assistance again. Here.” He throws a rolled up scroll to me. I catch it, seeing that it was another summoning scroll. Looking up with a smile, I beam, “thank yo….” My face goes blank with a frown as I see his hand reached out. His words are monotone as he says, “money…” I sigh, “Can’t I just buy these in bulk?” as I reach into my pocket. He shakes his head, “that would be impossible.” I walk over and place the money in his hand and he places it within his dark robes. “Good luck in your training,” he says before there is a puff of smoke and he is gone with the target having taken it with him. I scratch my head and shrug. Turning to Tomo-kun, I hand the scroll to him for storing it. He stores it away and I turn and continue my jog to finish for the morning.