2 Shinai

Reiji Miyazaki was a Kendo Practitioner and dubbed as the Master Swordsman in the country.

At an early age of 5, when he can hold a small shinai and do an acceptable stance, he started to practice Kendo at the dojo owned by their family.

As several years passed, his parents and the coaches within the dojo had seen his outstanding potential in the sports. They noticed one amazing trait he have that could potentially catapult him to the peak of the martial art, it was his absurdly impressive kinetic vision.

After a few years, he joined the Kendo Club in his school and competed with the practitioners of the same age.

During his years in middle school and high school, no one has ever scored a point against him. He was a prodigy in Kendo.

But this made him a bit sad being lonely at the top. He wanted to meet someone who can defeat him, someone who can fight against him toe-to-toe.

As he never stopped looking for stronger opponents, he grew up and he set his eyes on the All Japan Kendo Championship. It is a yearly event in the country and he participated 12 times and won all of them!

He was 37 years old when he won his 12th championship title and decided to end his professional career and give some chance to the younger practitioners. He started to live his life normally at first but he couldn't help but find the sport that was ingrained within his blood. So he opened his own dojo and started teaching the martial art to kids and nurture them to be a fine practitioner someday. At least, that was his plan.

On the 38th celebration of his birthday, he purchased 12 sets of hakama and keikogi to gift them to his students at the dojo.*

It was raining heavily and he forgot to bring his umbrella so he was hurrying to the nearest train station. Unfortunately, he saw a child that was about to be hit by a truck. It was probably due to the heavy rain that a child slipped while crossing the pedestrian.

Reiji, with his superb kinetic vision, saw that the truck driver was unconscious for some unknown reason and he also noticed that the child was one of his students at the dojo.

"You! Get away from there!" Reiji already threw away the things he was carrying and was now running towards the child to save him.

After that, the only thing he remembered was how he pushed the child away from the truck's direction as his vision was blinded by a bright light before suddenly turning black as his consciousness started to fade away.

'Ahh... So this is it, huh... I live a brimming life... but... I wish I could hold my shinai once more...'

He soon closed his eyes as his death was the headline in all the newspapers and media outlets of the country.

Reiji Miyazaki, who wanted to meet someone who could defeat him in the martial art that he loves, failed and died at the age of 38.

***

As soon as he miraculously regained his consciousness, he noticed that he couldn't see anything even if he tried opening his eyes. At the very least, he was hearing something but couldn't understand them clearly. He tried to focus his mind and listen attentively to what the voice was saying.

[ ....Establishing a connection to a spirit vein- ]

[ Downloading the "Blessing" from Albeiron the Sword Deity... ]

[ Upgrade Contents - Locked and Ready. ]

[ Identifying appropriate vessel... ]

[ Vessel confirmed. Creating a vessel for the user. ]

[ Creation completed. ]

[ Establishing Soul upload... ]

[ Soul upload error. Multiple upload sequence started. ]

[ Delayed uploading--- ]

As soon as it reached this point. His "body" suddenly turned cold and felt that he was squeezed into something small. It felt uncomfortable at first but after a few seconds, it already felt natural and didn't notice any abnormalities. Unfortunately, he still couldn't see anything as if he was blind and he couldn't even let out a sound.

He suddenly felt warm and heard some noises in the background. He felt that he was being carried by a large fat hand but his senses were still a mess. He couldn't understand what exactly was happening.

As he was starting to be stressed about his situation, he heard the same monotonous voice in his mind.

[ Transfer completed. ]

[ Upload sequence: In progress ]

[ Calculating--- ]

He didn't hear any more words as he lost consciousness again.

***

Reiji wasn't sure how long had passed as he woke up again. It was still dark, but this time, he was seeing stars and moon!

'Oh! I'm really alive!'

Reiji wanted to celebrate but a wave of information suddenly assaulted his mind. He didn't even have time to scream in pain as he lost his energy again.

"This..."

He understood his situation already since the information he just received was completely detailed. He just couldn't imagine that this would happen to him. Anyway, he was still thankful that he can still enjoy the life of a living and possibly fight against stronger sword practitioners.

"So, I really reincarnated..."

Reiji quickly used his senses and understood that his body had changed and he became a bamboo sword or a shinai.

It took him some time to accept this reality because he clearly remembered that he should've died after being rammed by that truck.

'I wonder if that kid safely returned home.'

'Haaa...'

He cleared his mind as he tried to focus his senses on his surroundings.

"Why am I here?"

He asked a question and he knows that someone or an entity should be guiding him at this time. Although his mind was still in a mess due to all the sudden changes in his life. He could only try to go with the flow in the meantime and slowly incorporate himself into this new life.

[ You have been summoned as an Arcana already. ]

"Then?"

[ Due to the delayed upload process. You have been unable to show your worth to the Arcanist who summoned you and threw you away. ]

"Hey! That's terrible! He should've waited at least for a day."

[ The completion of the upload process took three days. ]

"Eh? That long? Anyway, that person shouldn't have thrown away something he summoned!"

'Well, looking at it in a positive way. I don't want to be accompanied by such an ungrateful person. I better roam this world alone and challenge all the best sword practitioners in this world!'

"Let me check... Status!"

[ Name: Reiji Miyazaki ]

[ Form: Shinai ]

[ Rank: Common ]

[ Wielder: None ]

[ Title: None ]

[ Durability: 100/100 ]

[ Skills: None ]

[ Skill Points: 10 ]

[ Available Missions ]

"Starting from the bottom, huh..." Reiji was referring to his current rank.

He then willed his mind to try and see what skills he could get with the 10 Skill Points that he has.

[ Skills Options ]

Stealth - 5 SP

Swiftness - 5 SP

Force Impact - 5 SP

Sense Link - 5 SP

Take Over - 5 SP

Durability Enhancement - 10 SP

Weight Overload - 10 SP

--See More--

Reiji tried seeing more and noticed that there were abundant of possible skills that he could get. He even felt excited about his possible future after seeing the skills that require him to spend thousands of skill points before he could learn them.

Then, he returned to the skills that he could afford and tried finding the most suitable for his current situation. If he learned one of the skills, it will be a Level 1 skill where he could still spend more Skill Points to improve them until level 10.

He read each of the affordable spells and decided to go with the Take Over and Sense Link.

[ Take Over Lv 1 ]

[ The host will be capable of taking over the wielder's body for 10 seconds if it is permitted. The duration will extend the higher the level. ]

[ Sense Link Lv 1 ]

[ The host will be capable of establishing a connection to its wielder. The skill quality will improve the higher the level. ]