Chapter 6-Sword Art [2]

As I went draper in the cave, what stand in front of me was stairs that lead nowhere, as I look up what I see is only darkness

I started to climb the stair, the more I climb the more my surrounding grow darker as the stairs turns whiter

1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 5 hours, by the time my legs were numb, I had lost count of how long I had been climbing the stairs

My legs and my heart at this point were starting to burn from the pain of continuously going down the rope, and before I knew it, my mental state was also degrading

Still, regardless of how much I was suffering I endured the pain and continued climbing, until a moment when the stairs start to disappear, as I started to run

"Gasp...Gasp...Gasp"

With bloodshot eyes, I keep going up

I don't know how long I had been down here, but I presume at least two days had passed since I started going down

My legs which were riddled with blisters started bleeding down the stairs leaving behind me a red trail as I descended. My muscles were spasming every minute, almost throwing me off balance

I just kept going and going and going, until my sense of time and reason left my body. Even the pain slowly subsided making it seem as if I was a robot

Sadly like any other powered object, robots tend to run out of batteries. And that's precisely what happened to me

My vision is getting blurry because I lost all my energy, couldn't even breathe properly

.....

It seems like I have died again huh?

Oddly enough it didn't feel the same as my first death, where I only felt endless coldness and loneliness

This time a warm sensation enveloped my body making me feel extremely comfortable. It felt as if I was back in my mother's womb under the constant nourishment and protection of my mother. It didn't feel bad.....

-Dong! -Dong! -Dong!

Suddenly I heard the loud sound of a bell tolling, causing my mind to spin and my eyes to shoot wide open

"What just happened!"

Abruptly sitting up straight, I found my body drenched in sweat. Touching my head and my body in a daze I noticed that my mask wasn't there and I was on top of a small bed with the bedsheets damp from my sweat

Glancing around, I finally took notice of my surroundings. I was inside a small room with what seemed to be a Japanese tatami-style floor. The room was rather empty, and aside from a small tea table and a large ancient clock that constantly tolled in the corner of the room, there was no other furniture

"You up kid?"

"Huh?"

Snapping my head to the right, where the voice was coming from, a middle-aged man sat next to the tea table preparing some tea. His carefree movements and his calm demeanor when preparing the tea, blended with the tranquil surroundings

The aroma coming from the tea filled the entire room prompting me to momentarily relax. But not for long as I immediately jumped out of the bed and warily look at the stranger before me

Jet black hair, deep black eyes, and a stern yet kind-looking face

"Relax kid, I'm not going to do anything to you"

"Who are you?"

I warily asked without letting my guard down

If not for the fact that I was sure that he was not there when I was previously checking the room, I wouldn't have been as wary as I was now

A master

He was definitely a master beyond my level

Only someone who was leagues above my level could suddenly appear out of thin air without me noticing

Smiling to me, the stern-looking middle-aged man looked at me and spoke "Ah! that's right! I haven't introduced myself yet have I?" he extended his right hand towards my direction "A pleasure to meet you kid my name is Saisoku Suzuki "

Instantly my pupils dilated, and my mouth went slack

"Ho-how? Aren't you already dead!"

My speech stuttered as I speechlessly looked at the man before me in shock

Laughing bitterly at my reaction, Grandmaster Suzuki calmly put down the teapot and blew on the teacup in his hand

"fuuu...Yes technically I could be considered to be dead but... I left my will in my legacy, that makes me a remnant soul!"

"R-remnant soul!"

Once an expert reached a certain rank, they could learn an ancient Chinese technique known as {Soul division}. Its main purpose was to split a soul and attach it to an object, allowing a person to for a short moment of time interact with the initiator of the technique. To better summarize the technique, it was basically a live recording that you could interact with

It had no attack power, and apart from inheriting the memories of the initiator, had no other feature

Knowing this, I managed to put the two and two together and managed to recompose my cold self

"Ahem.... Sorry about that"

Amused by my odd behavior Grandmaster Suzuki laughed out loud and said "Hahahaha no worries no worries, I had expected this kind of reaction to happen once someone found my legacy"

As Grandmaster Suzuki stops for a few seconds and analyzes me before looking at me like I was a dead sheep as he passed me my mask

"Now, I know why you are wearing a mask, I wish you good luck, I hope God will soothe your soul"

"What?"

Confused, I raised my eyebrow and looked at him with slightly cold who was giving me my mask, as I take it, I didn't put it simply because its a sign of respect

"Nothing!!, so what's your name boy?"

"My name is Arsene. Arsene Lionheart"

Gripping my hand, we both looked at each other and shook our hands

"Please sit down"

Gesturing for me to sit down next to the tea table, Grandmaster Suzuki took the porcelain teapot and dumped the contents that were in it

"Green or black?"

"ehmm.... I don't know let's go with Black"

Smiling lightly, Grandmaster Suzuki added the tea leaves to the brewing vessel and slowly poured hot water inside of the vessel to let the leaves soak and steep in the pot

As he was watching the water slowly darkening, Grandmaster Suzuki let out a sad sigh and a nostalgic looked appeared on his face

"You know back then in my time, there were no wars, it was not the most peaceful place but we could do whatever we what, we could travail, some people liked to play games, some draw, even though we were not powerful like today, de could live freely but today we live to survive. I lived in a country known as Japan. It was one of the most beautiful places in the world. It had tall and beautiful mountains, pink-dyed springs which were due to the sakura blossoming, wonderful food, and mesmerizing star-filled skies...some even went as far as calling it paradise on earth"

Seeing Grandmaster Suzuki reminisce about his past, I immediately sat up straight and let my cold self down as I paid close attention to what he was saying

More than me wanting to know more about his past, which I already knew, I paid my full-hearted attention to him because I respected him

Though he may have been a fictional character that I read in a novel, that was then and this was now

He was no longer a fictional character, and this world was no longer a novel. This was real...and the man before me was Grandmaster Suzuki, a legendary warrior that sacrificed his life for the safety of millions

Looking up at the room's ceiling as he was reminiscing his past, Grandmaster Suzuki let out a sad and tragic smile

"Before the disaster, I had a beautiful wife and daughter, and loving parents. Back then I worked as a Kendo instructor and although I did not earn much, I was happy. It was a simple but yet fulfilling life"

"But...then it hit us out of nowhere. Massive earthquakes engulfed Japan creating tsunamis everywhere. It was total chaos as people were killed and homes were lost. The world that we once knew started to crumble. Fortunately, at the time when this was happening my wife, my daughter and my parents were traveling on a plane with me outside of Japan, and thus we were relatively unaffected by the catastrophe, but..."

Suddenly Grandmaster Suzuki clenched the teacup he was holding tightly, as his face burned with pure rage

"Then the second calamity happened!"

Taking a huge breath he tried to calm himself down before continuing his speech

"Huge black creatures with bat-like wings and sharp horns emerged from the mysterious gates that appeared all over the world. At first, they didn't do anything, they just stood in the air and calmly observed us like some kind of mice inside of a lab. To this day I still remember their arrogant eyes and creepy smiles that took pleasure in our despair"

With his hands trembling, Grandmaster Suzuki looked directly at me

Though he was supposed to be a remnant consciousness I could still vividly see the sadness and anguish hidden deep within his eyes, as crystalline tears flowed down his wrinkly face

"As soon as they deemed us weak"

His teacup which was already shaking shook ever more fiercely and his expression which was previously still stoic completely crumbled as more tears started streaming down his face

"Th-hey t-ook my wife, my daughter and my parents, they took my family from me....."

With a little drop of water coming from his eyes, Grandmaster Suzuki, no, both a father, a husband and finally a child let the tears stream down his face as he mourned for the death of his loved ones

Watching the frail-looking man break down in front of me, I chose to remain silent and patiently waited for him to calm down

Wiping his eyes, Grandmaster Suzuki stood up and calmly walked towards me

"Sorry you had to see that"

"No, I understand"

I shook my head and got up as well

Staring at each other eye to eye for a couple of seconds, grandmaster Suzuki suddenly smiled and patted my shoulder

"Good, it seems even though you're a bit cold, my luck isn't too bad"

Walking past me, he slid the door and walked outside the room as he gestured me to follow along

"Follow me"

As soon as I left the room I was left flabbergasted. An inexplicably beautiful garden stood before me. I felt a sudden loss of breath as I stood there blankly, mesmerized by the scene

Lush green plants vibrantly covered the surroundings of the garden and in the middle of it appeared a large transparent pond where koi fish of multiple different sizes freely swam in it. Birds freely roamed and chirped around the cloudless blue sky, and occasionally you would hear the repetitive yet relaxing sound of the bamboo fountain planted in the garden

The more I walked around the garden the more I was left mesmerized by the surroundings.

Approaching the pond, I could see different colored fish which ranged from red and white slightly peeking the surface of the water almost as if they were aware of our presence

In the middle of the pond stood a small island connected by a small wooden bridge

Walking across the bridge, once again my breath was taken away.

A miniature stylized landscaped through which rocks, water features, and moss was neatly composed and surrounded by gravel which was raked to resemble ripples in water, appeared in my line of sight

"A garden."

"It's nice isn't it?"

Sitting comfortably near the garden, grandmaster Suzuki waved his hand urging me to sit down next to him

"It truly is..." I replied as I started the garden, because it was the first I see a garden as I sit down near grandmaster Suzuki

Silence enveloped us as we both calmly stared at the garden before us. It was strange yet relaxing at the same time

"You know I was really surprised when I first saw you..."

The first to disrupt the silence was grandmaster Suzuki, who with a smile plastered on his face continued to look at the garden before him

"Ever since my death, no one had ever been to this place, and rightfully so, as I made sure to hide this place from the prying eyes of those greedy bastards..."

"Of course, even if they did find this place out of pure luck, I made sure they wouldn't be able to enter. I'm sure you know that those stairs were a test right?"

With a smile on his face Grandmaster Suzuki glanced at me, which made me recall the traumatizing experience I had gone through before

'Of course, I know! I'm still being haunted by those stars to this day!' I cursed inwardly as I smiled and nodded

"Yes I remember"

Laughing out loud, grandmaster Suzuki continued "You see I put those stairs there as a test to determine if someone was worthy of waking up my soul. If you had climbed up but quit after an hour you would've never been able to find this place. Even if you come back another day. You would've never been able to come here. Once you can firmly climb those stairs for two days without falling only then will you have the right to have an audience with me"

Looking at Grandmaster Suzuki I could faintly see a trace of admiration in his eyes as he looked at me

"5 days 1 hour minutes, and 29 seconds. That's how long you've been going down the rope. Even as a remnant soul I was shocked by your sheer determination"

I kept smiling, but my eyelid couldn't help but twitch at his statement

"Even if you kept going because you wanted to live on, that still counts as determination. Moreover, you were never going to die in the first place as it was just an illusion"

Seemingly having read my thoughts again Grandmaster Suzuki lightly chuckled

"Getting back on the topic, the reason why I created those stairs test was to determine if someone is worthy enough to inherit my sword art. Someone with no determination can never hope of inheriting my [Yūrei style]"

"The [Yūrei style] is a sword art that focuses on monotonous but perfect slashes, it an art meant to earn perfection. If someone cannot practice the same monotonous motion like swinging the sword in the same direction for more than half a day straight, they are not worthy!"

Standing up Grandmaster Suzuki walked across the bridge and stopped before a tree

Placing his hand on the sheath of his katana he took a deep breath

Soon after, his figure slowly blended with the surrounding scenery making it seem as if he was one with nature

-Rustle

Out of nowhere a small gust of wind passed by causing a couple of leaves to fall from the tree

The leaves which were blown away by the wind slowly descended near where Grandmaster Suzuki was

-Click!

All I heard was a clicking sound before all the leaves around Grandmaster Suzuki split into eight identical pieces causing my jaw to drop into an 'O' shape.

-Click!

With another click, the katana that seemed to have never left the scabbard returned to its original position.

"The [Yūrei style] is the art of perfection. When you manage to repeat the same motion every time with no margin of error, that is when you will have finally mastered the [Yūrei style]"

Closing my eyes I tried to keep my composure.

My heart was beating like crazy, and my blood boiled, even though I reincarnated in a world where anything is possible with enough strength, it was still my first time seeing something like this. 'That was insane! How in the world did he even manage to cut those leaves so perfectly without even moving! I want to do that too!'

Looking at my sparkling eyes, Grandmaster Suzuki, let out a chuckle

"Do you wish to learn?"

Disrupting me from my thoughts was Grandmaster Suzuki's stern voice

"Yes!"

Without a second thought, I nodded my head, my cold self was replaced with an enthusiastically self

I was waiting for this moment!

"Very well"

Seemingly having made his decision, Grandmaster Suzuki peacefully smiled

Slowly he walked up to me and tapped my forehead

Immediately I felt my mind turn blank as a flood of information rushed into my mind

Watching me getting overwhelmed by the information Grandmaster Suzuki smiled as his body slowly became more and more transparent.

By the time I managed to sort out all of the information inside of my brain Grandmaster Suzuki was already almost fully transparent

Startled I immediately got on my knees and paid my respects

"Thank you! I will make sure to remember your kindness!!"

Grandmaster Suzuki let out another smile, as he mumbled something inaudible before he disappeared and scattered into light fragments

Nodding resolutely I stood up. Though his last words may have been inaudible I could already tell what he wanted to say

"Try to keep low until you're strong enough..."

Letting out a deep breath, I took one last look at the surroundings and engraved the scenery inside of my head

Paying one last respect, I quickly walked towards where the exit was

"I know"