Everstrong comes back with pudding for Hyacinth. She started scarfing down the pudding as I was starting to speak. “So she’s your daughter?”

“Yeah! I found her in the er’ in the forest of this place and I adopted er’! She’s hanging around here with me for a good 2 years now!”

“I’m guessing from that punch I received,” I look at Hyacinth in embarrassment. “, she’s also been trained?”

“Of course she’s been trained! Anyone steps near this place will be either killed or trained!” Everstrong and Hyacinth start laughing in unison. I let out a short giggle at his worrying comment. 

“One more question. The DES inspectors. What’s the situation between the two of you?”

“I’m a nice guy, but all ya questions ain’t gonna be answered by me. I ain’t let ya here to just to give ya my life’s story.” Everstrong gives me a snarky reply before getting up to stretch. 

“Astrum appointed me to you, so I think I deserve to know something.” After I spoke, Hyacinth looked at me with perplexed eyes while stopping everything she was doing. Her face became pale and her body was frozen. 

Hyacinth’s voice was loud and filled with hostility. “Astrum? You work for THAT man!?”

“Hyacinth, go to your room. I will explain the situation to you later.” As Everstrong gives command, Hyacinth stomps to the back of the Dojo into a room with a door. Everstrong sighs. 

“She has something against Astrum?”

“Yeeeah, I might as well tell ya, but promise me ya ain’t gonna go tellin’ this to anyone. Especially the newer DES workers like you.”

I make a promise not to speak out about anything he says in the Dojo.

“When I was 17, the DES ended up finding out about this Dojo and investigated it, which led to them findin’ me and me killing the investigators. I knew that I was breaking their little shitty code that they had, but I do anything I want and I ain’t ever gonna let a some sentences tell me what I can and can’t do! Anyways, after many investigators going missing, even high ranking ones, Astrum came here directly to confront me. I knew that if I killed him, the safety of people would become tarnished, so he took me into his office and made me a deal.”

Everstrong shapes his face to mock what Astrum looked like, mocked his voice and said, “ ‘Your life will be safe if you commit to the DES as its top executioner. You won’t be called for basic executions lower than Hazard level. This child is also of no use to me anymore. Such a shame that she holds the name of a man of power.’ As much as I wanted to crush the bastards skull in, I signed the contract, took the kid in, trained er’, and gave er’ a happy life.” 

Guilt slowly swallowed me the more he spoke about Astrum and the DES. Rejecting the story as credible is impossible. “The higher ranking executioners had to have known about this!”

“Except they didn’t! I bet that no one in the DES would even suspect him havin’ a daughter. He let me look through confidential information in his room, and oh boy was it all just foul! If allat info leaked who knows what people would think of the DES here in Kyoto.”

I try asking him about the information he learned, but he declined even for the slightest bit of info. My intentions of becoming Kyoto’s savior grew stronger. Astrum made a cruel mistake, but I can’t let that one mistake tarnish the true hero that he is. I have to keep moving forward in his footsteps, fight for Kyoto, and become a better DES leader!

“Let’s go the back of the Dojo! We ain’t got no time to be wastin’!” 

At the back exterior of the Dojo was a pond of water surrounded by large rocks which were accompanied by the noise of a Shishi-Odoshi. Everstrong signals me to sit in one of the huge rocks. 

“Now for your perception training. You’re going to sit there on the rock meditating, and every time the bamboo from the shishi-odoshi makes a noise, you’ll have to figure out which direction I’ll be attacking from.”

“I’m going to need to use shinkuro aren’t I?”

Everstrong smirks. “You’re a quick learner, so you’ll figure it own on your down.” 

I sigh and close my eyes, cross my legs, and listen to the cries of the wilderness. Sounds of movement in the water grabs my attention. I poured out some of my shinkuro energy around my surroundings.

“Good first step, but will you know…”

Bonk!

The noise of the bamboo echoes and my senses heighten. A punch connects to my face and I’m sent flying off the rock, rolling across the water. “Nope! Ya didn’t know where the attack would get ya!”

I stand back up and close my eyes, waiting for the next cue. I have my shinkuro covering the environment and myself. My shinkuro was able to make me feel wherever his presence was, but not any faster movements or coming attack.

Bonk!

I sense Everstrong’s shinkuro slowly approaching me. A hostile feeling was approaching me fast. In response, I dodge his punch that was in front of me. Opening my eyes, Everstrong has a dumbfounded look.

“I joking about that fast learner thing! Ya already learned how to give your shinkuro commands on what to sense!”

“It was just a lucky guess on what to do. I just let my shinkuro energy sense any shinkuro that was hostile towards me. It made no sense, but I guess it does now. How does one’s shinkuro able to sense the intentions of others?”

Everstrong tilts his head with a smile. “Well you asked just the right guy! Basically, your shinkuro works in two different ways. You have the shinkuro that you use to create your element and to enhance the power of your attacks, while you have shinkuro that rest within your subconscious. The shinkuro in your subconscious is able to alarm you of any other shinkuro users with dubious intent, because the shinkuro holds intentions. As long as your mind is clear before an attack, you won’t be able to sense someone until the last second, which is what I did. I’m surprised you were even able to get me last second like that though, that takes some quick reaction time!”

“So, shinkuro can feel intentions…” That explains why I feel a sinister presence every time I go into Mayumi’s office. 

“Well thank God that we ended that one fast, because now we can get to the exciting part! Let’s get inside and learn how to use your new weapon and your ability!”

——————————————

5/29/19

Yami and I are walking across the rundown 

Gōjo, chattering about my journey so far.

“And that’s how I got here now!”

“Your story has only just started, and you’re dealing with all that?” Yami starts laughing. “Working with me will only get you in deeper trouble.”

“How so?”

Yami stops walking and stands in front of me. “Because after this, I’m totally joining you! You have a lot to learn and I’ll need to be there to help.”

Admiring her words, I give her a small grin before speaking. “Do whatever you want I guess. As long as you don’t get caught, get in my way, or betray me, you’re free to do whatever.”

Yami grabs my hand and squint her eyes with a soft smile. “We wouldn’t even be able to betray each other anyway,” Yami takes my Carnifex cap and puts it onto herself, “because I’m part of you.”

Our eyes lock onto each other, staring deep into each other’s souls. Her slightly squinted eyes looked at me with assurance and her smile was alluring. Grabbing my cap back, I speak, “You’re putting yourself in a bad position…”

“Your problem is my problem and vice versa.” Yami is cut off by a big, spider-like entity slowly closing in behind her. “There’s my friend…” 

“W-why is that thing a spider!? That’s not a deceit! No way that’s your friend, that thing is horrid!”

“Well sometimes you don’t have to be beautiful on the outside to be charming on the inside!”

“You think that cliche phrase applies to whatever the hell that is at all!?”

Yami lets out a heavy sigh as the entity slowly approaches us. “Well at least they were beautiful.”

“Were?”

“Mhm. That thing is called an Exile. They were once Deceits, and whenever a Deceit is killed, their souls are destroyed without even attempting to travel to the afterlife. However, some Deceits have strong souls that fail to shatter, in conclusion, they turn into something stronger.”

“Does the DES even know about this? How haven’t I even heard anything about these things?”

“They are the Deceit Execution Squad. Not the Exile Execution Squad. It’s none of their concern to deal with the Exiles, and even if they tried to kill an Exile, they would be horrified to know that the Exile would have already transformed into something more sinister.”

“No surprise that the DES isn’t doing anything about it. Also, what’s this ‘sinister’ that you speak of?”

“You sure are full of questions aren’t you? Not all knowledge is needed for everyone. You’re not always going to get answers you want, and it’s better that way most of the times.” Yami presses her finger against my chest. “You can get all your questions answered if you just seek them out. Experience is knowledge, Daitan. Eventually, the answers that are meant for your story will be answered.”

I lower my head in shame. She’s right. All I do is ask questions and never attempt to seek them out myself. It always felt like heavy weight having something mysterious be unanswered.  

With the Spider Exile getting closer, Yami pats me on the shoulder. “Now answer this question. Can you kill that Exile?”

“I belie—“

“Yes or no, Daitan?”

I take a deep breath and summon my guns. The spider exile screeches and I quickly close in on it. I shoot a few of its eyes, then jump onto its head to send off one final blow. The blood of the Exile made a rain shower.

“Was that a good answer?”

“Nope, you should have incinerated it instead! Go find another one!” Yami and I start erupting with laughter. 

After departing ways with Yami, Nex gave me a call to tell me to meet him at Togetsukyō Bridge as soon as possible. Yami has been taking over my thoughts the entire time I’ve been walking to the bridge, her words repeating themselves. 

-You can get all your questions answered if you just seek them out. Experience is knowledge, Daitan. Eventually, the answers that are meant for your story will be answered.

What if those questions are answered too late? What if not knowing those answers end up getting yourself and everyone else killed or in danger? Am I suppose to just feel resolute? 

I try answering those questions my way to the bridge, digging deeper holes into the questions, but ultimately ending up with nothing. 

As I finally arrive, I see Nex with a serious expression with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “Just got off a request?”

“Yeah… what’s up?”

Nex’s voice became mellow. “Both of us are in trouble right now.”

“We’re always in some sort of trouble. If it’s the DES, then we can handle them somewhat.”

“If you were to die soon, how would you feel?”

Perplexed by his question, I let him continue talking. “I see then. Yukimura, someone is coming to kill you and if you die…”

“Do you know when this thing is going to show itself?”

“Soon. Real, real soon. Because of that, I’ll be trying to stick around you for as long as possible. If I’m attacked just don’t do anything.”

“Okay, but why exactly does it want my head?”

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“I think something that wants to kill me DOES concern me!”

“You’re not meant to know everything! Can you not take ‘no’ for an answer!?”

The echo of his shouting felt louder in the silence that had been created, our eyes piercing into each others. 

Nex breaks the momentary silence. “The answer you order would leave a wound that someone like you could never recover from. Your compliance is all that matters as of now, alright?” 

Before I could utter a single word, Nex vanishes. Staring into the horizon, Yami’s words repeat in my head once again. Questions about someone or something that could kill you aren’t important? Waiting  for that person to arrive in the moment death is facing me is the definite way of an answer? I don’t understand…