Chapter 17: The Lightning Sword

Six months had passed since Ei had started incorporating the techniques from her dreams into her training. The daily routine at the academy was familiar now, though no less intense. Yugito, Samui, and Mabui were all growing stronger in their own ways, pushing themselves to new limits with every session. Yet Ei, driven by the dreams that had begun to shape her very understanding of lightning, was evolving faster than any of them could have anticipated.

Every day, they trained hard. Ei's command over her lightning chakra was becoming sharper with each passing week. She could feel the power within her becoming less of a force to be tamed and more like an extension of herself. It was fluid, natural, like a river that she could redirect at will.

Yugito had made great progress in blending her flames with her taijutsu, and Samui had begun mastering elemental infusion with her sword techniques, making her strikes faster and more lethal. Mabui had focused on honing her lightning and wind jutsu, pushing herself closer to her goal of developing space-time techniques. Together, they were formidable, but Ei was growing in a way that even they found hard to keep up with.

Ei, however, knew that she had only scratched the surface of what she could achieve. The dream she had had of the warrior—the formidable Raiden Mei—had given her a glimpse of the path she was meant to walk. But it wasn't until six months later that another vision came to her, one that would deepen her connection to the lightning and her swordsmanship.

That night, after a long day of training, Ei collapsed onto her bed, her muscles aching but her mind alive with energy. She felt as if the storm within her was growing again, ready to break through. Her eyelids grew heavy, and before long, she fell into a deep sleep.

The dream came almost immediately.

She found herself standing in a vast expanse of darkness. Lightning crackled all around her, illuminating the sky in harsh, brilliant flashes. At the center of it all stood a woman—tall, regal, and commanding. She had a calm but unshakable presence, her eyes glowing with an inner strength that matched the storm surrounding them. She wore armor that gleamed in the electric light, and in her hand was a katana, pulsing with a quiet, deadly power.

This was Raiden Ei, a warrior of immense strength and precision.

The woman turned to face Ei, her eyes assessing, as if weighing her potential. Without a word, she unsheathed her sword. A soft hum resonated in the air, and the storm quieted for just a moment, as if even the elements waited to see what she would do.

Raiden Ei raised the katana, and with one fluid motion, she swung the blade. Lightning erupted from the sword, but it didn't just scatter wildly like uncontrolled energy. It formed into the shape of a blade aura, sharp and deadly, slicing through the air like an extension of the katana itself. The precision was perfect—each strike calculated, each burst of lightning deadly.

Ei watched in awe as Raiden Ei demonstrated technique after technique, her mastery over the lightning absolute. With every swing, arcs of lightning took on the shape of blades, cleaving through the air with terrifying accuracy. It wasn't just raw power—it was power refined to its purest form, channeled through the blade in a way that made every strike devastating.

And then, Raiden Ei stopped. She turned toward Ei, her eyes piercing through the dream, and spoke for the first time.

"To wield lightning is to understand its flow," she said, her voice as steady and powerful as the storm around them. "You must learn to guide it—not control it, but let it move through you as though it were your own essence."

Ei nodded, absorbing every word, her heart pounding in her chest. This was what she had been missing. Precision. Flow. A deeper connection with the lightning.

Raiden Ei raised her katana once more, and this time, the storm gathered around her, as if the very sky was bending to her will. In one motion, she brought the blade down in a technique that Ei could barely comprehend. The katana shimmered with an ethereal light as the lightning condensed into a singular, impossibly sharp blade. The ground beneath them trembled as the blade cut through the air—and in an instant, the dream shifted.

Now, Ei stood on a cliff, looking out over a vast ocean. Raiden Ei stood at the edge, her katana raised. Across from them, a monstrous snake god loomed, its massive coils twisting through the water like living mountains. The god hissed, its voice shaking the very earth.

But Raiden Ei was unfazed.

With a single, fluid motion, she brought her katana down.

"Musou no Hitotachi," she whispered, and the world seemed to freeze.

A flash of blinding light erupted from her blade, and in that instant, the snake god was no more. The sheer force of the strike split the ocean in two, the waves crashing against the edges of the chasm created by the lightning blade. The sky itself seemed to tear apart, and in the distance, an island split cleanly in half, the force of the strike continuing far beyond the immediate battle.

Ei could barely breathe. The power... it was overwhelming. Raiden Ei had cut through not just the god, but the very fabric of the world around her. It was as if time and space themselves had bowed before her blade.

Raiden Ei turned to Ei once more, her expression calm. "This is the peak of our power. Musou no Hitotachi—lightning in its purest, most destructive form. If you wish to walk this path, you must train not just your body, but your soul. Only then will you be able to wield such power."

The dream began to fade, the lightning dissipating into the darkness once more. But Raiden Ei's words lingered in Ei's mind, echoing with every breath.

"This power is yours, if you choose to claim it."

Ei woke with a start, her heart racing, her body buzzing with residual energy from the dream. Her mind was alive with what she had just witnessed, and she knew immediately what she needed to do. Musou no Hitotachi wasn't just a technique—it was the pinnacle of mastery over lightning, the ultimate fusion of precision and raw power.

She had seen the path laid out before her, and now it was time to walk it.

Ei climbed out of bed, her mind already formulating how she would incorporate what she had learned into her training. She had been focusing on mastering the Lightning Chakra Mode, but now she understood that it was only the beginning. She needed to refine her swordsmanship, to merge the katana and the lightning in perfect harmony.

Raiden Ei had shown her the way.

Her hands clenched into fists as she made a silent vow. She would master the lightning, not just in power, but in precision. And one day, she would be able to wield Musou no Hitotachi, just like the warrior in her dream.

The storm within her was no longer just a force to be reckoned with—it was becoming an art. A deadly, beautiful art.

And Ei was ready to master it.

End of Chapter 17.