- The Sword That Has Been Passed On

It's morning and I'm going to school again today. I hope I didn't miss much because I didn't go to school yesterday.

I wonder what kind of sword I'll be getting today, Hirano-Sensei looked happy when I mentioned I wanted a short katana. Why would he even give me special treatment? He's been saying I have a lot of potential, but all he has seen is me playing a game of tag with Mikami-san, "is my ability to erase my presence really that great? What if it was just a fluke? I've only done it once after all." Just like a frustrated girl, I screamed into my pillow in hopes of releasing some of my frustration. "MMMMFFFF"

MIKAMI CHIZU POV: "clean, shiny, beautiful, aaaahhh, I love my new weapons, they're way too beautiful to be used to kill." I said while wiping the dust off my pistols. My eyes glister every time I look at these pistols.

I told Katsumi that Hirano-sensei is a strict man, Hirano-sensei used to be stricter when it was just me, his eyes usually look dead, it's like he was a different person yesterday, he looked so cheerful. "C-could it be... Sensei has a t-t-thing for Katsumi?" I stuttered. "No, that's impossible." I said, giving myself an answer. I'm happy to see Hirano-sensei be so cheerful though.

Today we're finally training again. We didn't train for the last two days, Katsumi's getting his new weapon today, so maybe we're already going to hunt some evil spirits.

"He's still in school, hmm.." I said in a somber tone.

"I'm also still supposed to go to school. I wonder if it's fun going to school with Katsumi."

"He looks like he has a lot of friends, last weekend he came to the maid café with a friend. I wonder if he goes out often." I said to myself.

"I wonder where his parents are, when I went to his place it was just him and his brother. Katsumi never really talks about himself so I don't know much about him."

I was left an orphan as a young girl, My mom died when i was 7 and my dad was out of the picture, so Hirano-sensei, my uncle took me in, and became like a father to me.

I knew he was an exorcist and so, I became interested in exorcism too. My uncle agreed to become my sensei when I was 18, and I've been his student ever since.

I went to the living room and saw sensei wiping the dust off an old katana, the katana looked like it hasn't been touched in years. It had a yellow handle and a matte back sheath with yellow outlining. A beautiful katana that looked like it was crying out to be used.

"Hirano-sensei, is this the sword you're giving Katsumi?" I asked him, while coming closer to get a closer look at the sword.

"Yes, this will be his." Sensei said, concentrating on cleaning the sword.

"But why are you giving him this? This looks like a good sword, are you sure he deserves it?"

"I don't doubt his abilities, but isn't it too early to give him a sword like this?" I added.

"This sword belongs to Katsumi, and to Katsumi only."

"What do you mean it belongs to Katsumi?"

How could a katana like this belong to a kid who's still training to become an exorcist? Who exactly is Saito Katsumi? I thought.

"You'll understand when Katsumi gets here."

SAITO KATSUMI POV:

Finally, after a long day of school, the last bell rang for the last time today. Because i was so excited about getting my new weapon today, school felt like it took forever.

Walking out of school, I heard loud footsteps approaching me from behind "Katsumi, wait!" Behind me was Ren, jogging to catch up to me.

"Let's walk home together." He panted, while wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"I'm sorry Ren, but I'm actually not going home right now, there's somewhere I have to be," I said regretfully, Ren has always been by my side, he's the one that helped me the most after my mother and brother Kei died so I don't want to hide anything from him, but I think it's best if he doesn't know about this whole exorcism thing, I don't want him getting involved in anything dangerous because of me.

"Oh, it's okay Katsumi. Don't get involved in anything dangerous, okay." He said, sounding like a worried mother.

"I won't, " I said, with a nervous smile on my face.

"Well then, see you later."

"Yeah, see you later, Ren."

Walking off on my own, i took the note with the address on that sensei gave me, i looked up the address on AniMaps and followed the route.

"It's not that far, I'll be there in 20 minutes if I go by foot* I walked to my destination and when I arrived, I saw a classic Japanese house. *is this sensei's house?* I walked to the front door. *No bell? * I knocked on the door and sensei opened it. "Hey kid, you're here, come in!" He said.

I walked in and took off my shoes. We went to the living room and.. "Welcome, Katsumi" I saw Mikami-san sitting on the sofa. "Mikami-san? You're here as well?" I said

"Of course I am, I live here." She answered casually. "Do you live together with sensei?"

"Yeah, Hirano-sensei took me in after my mother died." She didn't look sad as she said it so I suppose it happened a long time ago.

"Anyway, enough small talk, follow me, kid" sensei said, interrupting my conversation with Mikami-san.

He took me to a spacious room filled with katanas and other kinds of weapons, it looked like sensei's personal arsenal.

"This one, kid." He pointed his finger at a certain sword.

I went to have a closer look at the katana. "Are you really giving me this, Sensei?"

"Yes, it's yours."

"It's a short katana, just like I wanted!" I said

"It's not a katana, this is a wakizashi. Wakizashi were the most popular swords during the Edo period. They were often used in pair with a katana by samurai. Back then, only a samurai could own a katana, but a non-samurai was allowed to own a wakizashi." Sensei explained me.

"You're so prepared, it's almost like you expected me to want a sword like this." I said

"That's because I was prepared. I've been prepared to give you this sword for 4 years." He told me as the conversation got more serious.

"I don't understand, what do you mean you've been prepared for 4 years?"

"Katsumi-kun, the original owner of this sword was Saito Kei, your brother" I couldn't believe what I just heard. "How did you-" small tears started rolling down my cheeks, hearing about Kei got me emotional. "Sensei, you knew my brother?"

"Yes, I knew him very well, he was my first disciple."

"Kei was an exorcist?" I said, with a surprised look on my face.

"Yes, and a very good one. He had a lot of potential, and just like you, he was able to erase his presence."

"But, how did you know that I'm his little brother? I never mentioned anything about my family."

"The first clue was when you had your test, the way you erased your presence. I had only seen one other person around your age do it before, and that was Kei-kun. The second clue i got was when i heard your family name is Saito, at this point I knew the two of you were related, but I wasn't 100% sure if you were his little brother yet, so I had Chizu-chan come to your house to investigate for me. Yesterday, at the gun store, she told me your oldest brother name is Keiichi. This is when I knew you were Kei-kun's brother because Kei-kun always used to talk about his older brother Keiichi."

Tears started streaming down as sensei talked about my brother Kei. "Sensei, I'm very... Very glad to hear all of that. Thank you for giving me this sword, I never had a memento of my brother so it means a lot to me."

"With this, I feel like I'll always have Kei with me, and through this sword he'll be fighting with me."

Standing next to me was Mikami-chan, who was shedding a tear. "Are you crying? Mikami-san?"

"I'm not crying, you're crying, " she answered me after she shed another tear. "Looks like we're both crying" i said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. She gave me a cute smile in return, to show me that i was indeed able to lighten the mood.