Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ The secret of Tenkaichi ❯ Death Reborn ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: Death reborn

 

 

"I've been walking for a week now...and I still haven't found any other students...or anyone come to think of it." Seisui spoke out loud, obviously bored. He had found himself on a path that was covered in a thick layer of dirt. The weather was very much different than what he was used to. Rather than the snowy sky, which constantly surrounded his old dojo, he found himself on a windy path. The intensity of the wind began to blow the dust from the trail into the young man's eyes. He made a slight utter of annoyance, as he began to rub his eyes vigorously to get the dust out. After he had completed this act, he noticed an area, which was significantly darker than the trail he was on. "That's strange...it's only about noon...why is that place so much darker than the rest of this path?" Seisui questioned himself, as he changed his destination to the mysteriously dimmed area.

 

Finally he arrived, after a long walk. His only visible crystal blue eye glanced up at what appeared to be a dojo. "Oro? The dimly lit area...does this mean that this is a Tenkaichi style which focuses on darkness?" He questioned to himself. As he was pondering these thoughts, he heard footsteps from the side of him. This caused him to quickly turn in the direction of the footsteps. "Whose there?" He questioned, preparing himself for a fight. He was still on edge after his encounter with Joutei.

 

A man began to approach Seisui, his raven hair spiked up rather unkemptly. The only thing that was keeping his hair spiked up appeared to be keeping it in its peculiar hairstyle was a blue colored headband, as dark as the midnight sky. The most peculiar thing about the man however, was his style of dress. The only thing that appeared to be visible was a large and battle-worn cloak. It was pure raven black, and at the ends, it was cut and flail, as though it was worn for many years. Due to the battered bottom of the cloak, a pair of midnight blue hakama was barely visible; only the ankle was shown. It appeared to have a hood on the back, but due to the direction he was coming from this was able to be directly seen. He seemed to be carrying a large item, which was wrapped in cloth. The height was at least as tall as the man, which was noticeable since he seemed to be atleast of about 6 feet and two inches. As he got closer, Seisui was able to see his pure onyx colored eyes.

 

"Who are you, kid? You wanna die?" The man questioned Seisui. His voice was deep and gruff. A closer look at the man's face, revealed it to be a tanned color with a mark going down his cheek. "Oh, excuse me sir. My name is Seisui. I was wondering, by chance did you study from the Tenkaichi style form of combat?" Seisui quickly responded, while bowing slightly to show his respect. "Raise your head, fool." The man simply muttered.

 

"...Ok...what the hell is with this guy?" Seisui thought to himself, as he straightened his posture. "What's your name? And did you study Tenkaichi?" Seisui asked, once more.

 

"My name is Ikari, not that it's any of your business, and maybe I studied Tenkaichi, maybe I didn't. There's no use answering the dead anyway!" The man revealed to be Ikari shouted. He gripped the strange cloth-wrapped object on his back, and quickly pulled it off. The item he was carrying around was revealed to be a large scythe. The handle was raven colored, and the blade was long and curved. At the end, there was a long chain; at least twice as long as the weapon itself. At the end of the chain, was a pronged blade. However, Seisui didn't have enough time to study Ikari's weapon closer, since he found the bladed chain flying toward his face.

 

Seisui quickly ducked and moved his left hand on his newly acquired weapon. He ended up resting it on the snowy colored sheath, while his right hand moved to grip his katana handle tightly. With one fluent motion, Seisui charged Ikari and slashed at his right arm. However, Ikari simply tugged on the handle of his scythe and a second later, Seisui was impaled in the back.

 

"Damn! I forgot about the chain..." Seisui thought to himself, as he coughed up a small drop of blood. It began to dribble down his chin, and dripped onto the dirt. Suddenly, Seisui regained his resolve and continued his slash toward Ikari; the chain still buried in his back. Ikari jumped back to avoid the slash, however it was a split second too late. Although he managed to avoid having his arm completely severed off, the katana left a deep gash in Ikari's arm. Instead of making an indication of pain however, Ikari began to laugh. In fact, it was closer to a cackle. "This should be fun!" Ikari exclaimed, as he reached his right hand back. He grabbed the hood of his cloak, and pulled it over his head. The way that the shadows fell over Ikari's face, combined with his onyx eyes and the fact that the hood smashed his hair down so it went over top his face, adding a shadow over his forehead, gave him an image of the Grim Reaper.

 

"Come...let us dance in hell together." Ikari taunted, charging at Seisui. He raised his scythe in both hands, and brought it down toward Seisui's head. At the last second, Seisui raised his katana and it slammed against the blade of Ikari's scythe. The collision was of such intensity, that several sparks shot into the moderate winds within the sky.

 

"Your pretty good, little boy." Ikari chuckled, as his scythe began to force Seisui into the ground. After a small period of time, Seisui was on his knees. He was still struggling against Ikari's scythe, however Ikari was far stronger than Seisui. "Stop...treating...me...like...a...CHILD!" Seisui cried out, in between grunts of resistance. At first, his hands seemed to be shaking. However, all at once, Seisui began to stand up and get back on equal ground with Ikari. It was at this point that he managed to push Ikari aside with one mighty swing of his katana.

 

"My, my. Ok, I won't call you boy. You're at least worthy of being called kid now. But no matter, you won't live very long. Want to know why?" Ikari questioned. Suddenly, the area they were fighting in began to grow even dimmer than it previously was. The strangest part about that fact, was that it seemed the most dim around Ikari. "Because you've forced me to dye myself within this power." Ikari stated, his voice gruesome and contorted with anger.

 

"I knew it. You did study the Tenkaichi style. But don't think you're so unique." Seisui retorted, as his breath slowly became visible. A small puddle of water which happened to be behind him had also began to freeze, and became a solid block of ice in a matter of seconds. The temperature in the area had dropped significantly. "Tenkaichi...this deadly style of combat focuses on the ki within a person's body. While mine is focused on ice and cold, yours is focused on shadows and darkness." Seisui explained, pointlessly since Ikari seemed to be ignoring him.

 

"Tenkaichi no Yami Ryuu: Hisou Jamata (The best thing on earth's darkness style: The grim goodbye)!" Ikari proclaimed, slashing his scythe into the air. From that slash, a crescent shaped wave of pure darkness energy emitted. It was on a collision course with Seisui. In order to combat this, Seisui gripped his katana tightly. "Tenkaichi no Koori Ryuu: Kanki Seinaru Kire (The best thing on earth's ice style: frost holy slice)!" He shouted, as he slashed his katana in a similar motion as Ikari's scythe slash. A crescent shaped wave of ice flew into the crescent shaped wave of darkness, and the two canceled each other out.

 

"I'm having the time of my life!" Ikari exclaimed, throwing the chain of his scythe toward Seisui's chest. "I've had enough!" Seisui retorted, swinging his katana at the chain. The chain smashed into the katana, and flew off to the right side of him. A moment later, Seisui was out of sight. A short moment after that, Ikari felt the touch of cold steel on his neck. He looked down to see Seisui's katana pointed at his neck, ready to pierce it. Seisui had bent down and thrusted his katana up, in an attempt to show the battle was over. His visible eye was narrowed on Ikari's face. "That's enough. You won't live to fight another day if you continue this. Give up, you've lost." Seisui uttered these words, his voice significantly more serious than his usual light-hearted voice. Ikari let his scythe hit the floor, admitting defeat.

 

"Your strong boy." Ikari uttered with a chuckle. Seisui sheathed his katana and stood up. "Stop calling me boy. I'm still on the look out for Joutei, so I'm leaving now." Seisui replied. Ikari pulled his hood down, and almost instantly his hair shot back up in it's previous spiked form. "Joutei...the old man who goes around killing masters of Tenkaichi? He killed my master a while back." He admitted. His voice however, held no sympathy. "Yeah...that's him. You should join me, I bet you want revenge too." Seisui offered. "Revenge? For what? You don't understand this world very much do you? The strong live and the weak die, that's just life. The only regret I have is that I didn't get to kill that bastard myself." Ikari stated. Seisui couldn't believe his ears. "You have the most messed up logic ever." Seisui began, before being cut off by Ikari. "I would however, like to kill Joutei. I think I will stick with you for a while." Ikari said, as he pulled out cloth to rewrap his scythe. When he was finished, he began to walk. "Well? Hurry up boy." Ikari taunted. "Stop treating me like such a damned kid!" Seisui retorted as he ran to catch up. And with that, the two became a duo. Walking the same path forged by blood...