A New Beginning

Secrets

"[Foolish.]"

Sabito's eyes looked back at Kanae for a moment, she certainly had just the right words to describe the situation they were in, or at least that's how it sounded. In reality though he had no idea what she just said.

It didn't sound Chinese or Korean, so far the only two foreign languages he had heard from a few visitors. But this kind of lenguaje, he doesn't even know how she just phrased the word.

"What?" Even the demon stopped laughing, twisting his head to the side with his face increasing in wrinkles as if he had just received an insult, and by the sound of it, it must have been.

Kanae's eyes widened, her hand tapping her mouth in an instant.

"Hey say it again..." The demon scowled.

Kanae instead focused on another thing. "Sabito-san, did you feel the moment Shinobu and Iguro-san got separated?"

The other shook his head.

"This must be a demon blood art."

As soon as she said those words, the demon leaped at her.

She saw it coming, almost as if it was a forethought, Kanae moved her body to the side, not a hit was touched by the demon. Then with ease and not a single speck of hesitation, she raised her katana up and sliced the demon's head instantly.

Sabito stayed there, or rather he was left there to just witness it.

"The swordsmen, they are growing weaker."

He remembered those words coming from Urokodaki after Makomo had left for another mission.

In the last batch, a year ago, the number of students that had survived was so low that news spread about it like wildfire.

Urokodaki's student survived for the first time. A few remembered the kids and the fact that they had always died, but many, especially cultivators, still remembered Meiji's best Water Hashira.

To think even the students of such a man had died...

That is until the last batch, making the rumors really run around.

"There was this one tall kid that looked so weird! He didn't even have sleeves and wore all black! The girls by his side, they were all almost naked!"

"Urokodaki's student really passed? You mean those kids with fox masks? What?! I thought those kids were just stories made up!"

"There were even two children! A kid close to Ten and another of twelve! How? How did the other fifteen or sixteen year olds not survive but they did?!"

"Oh and that one boy! You know! The one trained by Fujimura-sama!"

Those were the rumors running around when he first went to the village to get some new uniforms for Makomo.

The kids were getting weaker, but those who survived...

"I got accepted as a tsuguko! From Himejima-san!" Makomo had not left the man when she first saw him, and even if it took a lot of effort on her part, eventually they got close enough to let her train under him.

"Uzui-san is already a Kinoto in just eight months!" Giyuu had told him through the letter, though she sounded happy about him, she couldn't hide her envy when she was faced with him. Her pout seemed to grow and her eyes softened, like she was getting mad at something, but not at them.

Maybe, if was being more careful, if he could know her more, he could say there was a bit of self hate.

"I heard that the small boy from the selection is now being taken care of by Kuwajima-sama."