Chapter 15

Although stunned, many of them are able to dodge and roll away from the attack. Some of them are only concussed but 4 are hit. Those four ended up either heavily injured and some are even near death's door.

"Oi kid! Do you know that what adults do to stubborn kids like you? …We beat the shit out of them." Kaato, said.

As one of the ringleaders, he is quite stronger than most of the members in their group with his only equal, his friend Usuma. His experience and strength differ him from a normal criminal as he even used to be a trainee samurai.

On his years of being a bandit, he has lost many close friends to encounters with strong and capable people. However, whenever that happens, he never once felt angry, merely a little sad. In his mind, it's their job in the society to be a bandit. For him, they're an evil necessity. Although he was always attracted to wealth and material possessions, what he loves more in being a bandit is the thrill of it.

But even with all that, the display of power the little boy in his front made his furious. He never expected that a young measly boy who haven't even hit puberty made him lost 6 of his men already. The thrill of crime against a little boy isn't worth 6 of his men for Kaato.

…

After recovering, he started to walk towards Hisashi. He glares to him menacingly before slowing taking out his sword.

As his katana comes out of its sheathe, a raging flames accompanies the blade. It coats the whole blade as Kaato wave the sword.

Usuma seeing his friend takes this seriously, didn't hesitate to take out his weapon too. The same as Kaato, his blade is clad in his own sorcery, but his is wind.

Given Hino Country's, no, the whole eastern continent's thinner natural mana, they find it more exhausting to use larger attack spells contrary to other continents usage. That's what was stated on the Hino Country history Hisashi has read.

To compensate on this, they enriched their martial arts and changed the use of their sorcery to fit their styles best – mixed with hand-to-hand combat. Families and schools created their own styles passing it to the people they deemed worthy.

Some of the examples of these are the Yagyu Shinkage-ryu that Masaru(Koyori's Dad) taught him or Ryudo Family's Ono-ha Itto-ryu.

That is also how Kaato and Usuma fight. As the two used to train to become a samurai, they've adapted a general style the samurai uses. Compared to a usual samurai however, their's are crude and different. To compensate with this, they strengthened their sorcery allowing them to stand equal to the samurai they are fated to fight with.

…

[Fire Sorcery: Honoha]

"Kid, we can prevent this unnecessary trouble… If you just cooperate. So… Let me ask you. Will you, help us?"

Although it wasn't big issue for Hisashi, another limitation that he has yet to answer is that, he can't analyze all type of spells. Just like the one Kaato and Usuma is using right now, an augmentation type of spell.

"Tsk! What do you even want from us?"

Seeing how he is at a disadvantage, Hisashi decided to talk with them. He needs to buy as much time as possible.

"You see, one of my friends here has discovered something interesting."

Hearing him talk, Hisashi faked being relaxed by easing his posture. Kaato however, plays with his flaming sword while looking at him.

"Apparently, a dangerous dungeon has appeared here around this area. We then investigated it and… indeed it is! You see, we discovered that this dungeon is said to be the cause of the cursed water around the area. And so, we, my group, decided to get rid of it to return the natural order of things."

Hisashi was surprised about how the man created a fake story that is somewhat true to what happened. According to what was shown by Benzei, the timeline lines up. The incident did caused the cursed black sea on the eastern part of Hino Country. However, a missing part of the story was still missing.

Deciding to ride on the man's story, Hisashi entertained him.

"Then, on what can I help you sir? I'm pretty sure that I'm not strong enough to help you in any way."

"Oh. You don't have to worry. You do. You see, your little friend earlier hold the key for that dungeon."

"I don't think so sir. We are just a curious bunch of kids playing around."

Just from their interaction, Hisashi knows that Kaato knows what he is doing. However, he can't just counteract what he did earlier so he continued his act.

"You sure do. I don't really care about what you think. I just want to know if you really would cooperate or not?" Kaato said as he playfully swing and point his sword to Hisashi.

Given how Kaato's patience is nearing its limit, Hisashi new that he can't buy any more time. His only choice now is to confront him with what he can do.

"Are you really just going to stand there? Or are you gonna answer me? Well, I'd get a response once they catch your little girl friend."

That was when Hisashi noticed something. There are now less men around Kaato. Recalling from earlier, some of the missing people are those with wind sorcery type. That would enable them to catch up faster if they have some useful spells.

Kaato didn't actually send them away, it was Usuma. Since Kaato started talking to Hisashi, Usuma secretly send instructions to the men to follow the young girl. Kaato of course, new this so he tried to distract Hisashi who didn't notice it.

"Do you think you can save her if ever we catch her? After all, I'm done negotiating now." Kaato said as he take a stance. Hisashi responds by taking out his own training sword. Although it looked like a simple wooden sword, it was actually one of the weapons on the dungeon.

Its difference was it was heavier than normal sword, but also a lot harder. Since it was better for conditioning, Hisashi decided to use it for his everyday training. Now, it was going to be a weapon for him to use in a deadly fight.