Getting New Weapons

Isao and Shoma quickly walked out of their room after their quick room inspection. Coming from the village and living in the forest, they had pretty much almost nothing to pack and thus there was also pretty much nothing to unpack.

After admiring their slightly cushioned bed for a little more than a minute, they made their way outside the room, making their way down to the room where Nen and Yasu were staying, giving a resolute knock on the door.

Having made that knock, Isao and Shoma sat down on the stairs that led out of the courtyard that was directly opposite the rooms.

As they just sat, a voice came from further down the hallway.

"Yo!"

"Yo!" They greeted back as they saw Akito making his way down.

Akito walked over and sat next to them.

"You guys finished unpacking early…" Akito joked as he knew that the two had pretty much no luggage.

"Well, I'm finally going to get an upgrade so I could hardly wait," Shoma played along as he looked at his bow that was hanging on his side.

"It's served you really well," Isao commented as he stared at the bow.

"I hope that they have some really good bows. I miss my father's bow," Shoma spoke with a hint of melancholy as he stared up at the sky.

"Uncle's bow was something to admire. Maybe your luck will allow you to find one that's similar," Isao cheered Shoma up.

"Your father's bow?" Akito asked, his interest clearly piqued.

"Yeah. Back home in our village, our family had an heirloom that had been passed down from generation to generation. It was the Kansatsu Bow which was in my father's possession. It was the best bow that I have ever seen get an arrow shot from," Shoma spoke as the melancholy in his voice grew even stronger.

"What made it so good?" Akito asked, curious to hear such praise from Shoma who he considered to be the best archer in their generation as he had seen from the training that they had during the trip here.

"The bow was the epitome of range. Its bowstring was made out of an extremely hard tendon that was said to come from a legendary animal and the wood used for the body of the bow was even better. Even at his strongest, my father was only able to pull it about halfway. But whenever he shot an arrow, it would create the most beautiful sound every time and flew arrows countless times faster than what my bow is able to do," Shoma informed as a hint of pride appeared on his face.

"What about you?" Shoma asked as he shifted the conversation to Isao, "You must be hoping for a better weapon, that old dagger was something that you looted from a bandit a year ago. It's definitely past its prime now," Shoma commented as he stared at the dagger on Isao's waist.

"You're not wrong," Isao added as he pulled out his dagger and observed it, "I've had it for quite a while now."

"It's impressive how it hasn't broken yet," Akito commented as he saw the worn-out dagger that had countless slash marks on it from the countless amount of battles that it had participated in, "What weapon do you have in mind for your martial arts?"

Hearing this, Isao smiled as he caressed the dagger's blade, "For Zo Martial Arts, I don't need any weapon."

"Huh?" Akito let out, confused…

"Haha," Shoma laughed at Akito's confusion, "I was also the same when I heard about it."

"My martial arts uses the principle of 'formlessness,'" Isao stated, "I'll give you an example, if you are about to fight a man and in your hand is a sword. What will you use to attack?"

"Your sword," Akito answered.

"That is the answer I expected. What about your body, what about your hands?" Isao asked, "If you are attacking someone with your sword, your main attacking method will all incorporate sword attack in it. However, if you were to use your body, do you know how much more cards you will have at your disposal?"

Hearing this, Akito went deep into pondering as what Isao had said seemed to really make sense to him.

When he fought, now that he was getting close to the twin sword stage of Mago Swordsmanship, he realised that he was growing too reliant on the weapons in his hands.

"If you let go of your sword, you will have your elbow, palm, fist, shoulder opened up. When a person uses a weapon, it limits the movements at their disposal, inevitably increasing their predictability," Isao continued, "Zo Martial Arts involves mastering all your limbs and muscles so that you are able to use your whole body as a weapon. Upon mastering this, then can you fight with a weapon with no fear."

This principle caused a mini explosion in Akito's brain as he gained new insights from what Isao had said. Upon seeing the dagger in Isao's hand, he couldn't help but ask, "Consider the fact that you are using a dagger, does that mean you have already mastered it?"

"Haha!" Isao laughed lightly as he laid back, "No, I am still a novice in Zo Martial Arts, that's only one principle. I just ended up using the dagger because it made hunting and killing easier and cleaner."

Just as Isao said this, Shoma's voice sounded, "Oh well… now that we're learning Mago Swordsmanship, you've got no choice but to use an external medium now," Shoma commented.

"Yeah…" Isao spoke as his voice trailed off.

The door behind them then slid open as Nen and Yasu made their way out of the room.

At this, the trio on the steps got up and they began to explore the area, looking for the weapons store room. And after getting directions from a servant they soon arrived at the weapons room which was guarded by two armoured guards.

It was another big building that had a large door at the front. It was entirely made of stone and had no windows.

"Do you have permission to enter?" one of the guards asked as he vigilantly stared down at the group.

Nen then pulled out a small talisman which had the name 'Mago' written on it and replied, "Yup. My father, Ken Mago, has given permission for us to take some weapons out of the storeroom for our two new recruits."

Upon seeing the talisman, the guard immediately relaxed as he let them through, "You may enter. I hope you find suitables weapons."

They then pushed open the giant wooden doors and made their way inside. The inside of the weapon storage was well lit up as torches were hung on the walls, illuminating all parts of the building.

"Well then," Nen spoke, "Dad said that there will be a meeting not long after so let's hurry up with this. Yasu can go with Shoma. Akito and I will accompany Isao."

The whole group then split up into different parts, Shoma immediately made his way towards the bows. He immediately began looking at them as they were hanging on the walls, one after another. They were each formidable looking weapons.

Shoma's attention was caught on the third bow. It had a body that was made out of black wood and had an extremely thin bowstring.

He took it down and practised pulling the string and felt it around.

"How is it? All the weapons here are rewards that are given to the strongest people in the camp from the new recruits so they are all of very high quality," Yasu informed as he waited for Shoma's opinion on the bow that he was holding.

However, as soon as he said that, Shoma's eyes seemed to suddenly flash for the shortest of moments with a slight disappointment.

"This bow is better than my old bow. This one has good resistance and is very good for closer ranges," Shoma appraised as he released the string but he then hung it back on the wall, "But it's not what I'm looking for."

He then continued searching.

On the other end of the hall, Isao was looking at the countless amounts of weapons in front of him.

He stared at all the weapons, clean and sparkling in their best condition. He quickly made his way past the polearms section until he made it to the one and two-handed weapons section.

"Woa… These are some good weapons," Nen commented as his eyes sparkled, staring at all the spears and swords that were on display.

"You should try this," Nen suddenly spoke as he pulled out a sword and passed it to Isao, "It's top quality and will be able to accompany you for a while."

Isao took the sword from Nen but the instant that he held it, he immediately rejected it and put it back as he replied, "It doesn't feel right."

"What kind of weapon are you looking for?" Akito asked curiously, he then pointed towards the area right next to the swords and informed, "There are some glove weapons in that area."

Hearing this, Isao immediately made his way to the area that Akito had pointed and in that instant, his interest was immediately piqued by what he saw. He was a bunch of gauntlets that seemed to be for fighting but that was not where his interest lay. He saw a glove that had a small knife that was protruding out of the wrist area.

Seeing this, Isao curiously pulled out the glove and as he did so, he was surprised to find that the glove was a lot longer than he had thought. It reached all the way up to his elbow.

Intrigued, he put it on and was surprised to see that the instant that he had put it on, the blade almost immediately disappeared into the sheath which was located on the underside of the wrist.

This feature piqued his interest even more as Isao.

"Huh? Where did the blade go?" Nen asked curiously as he stared at Isao's wrist.

"I think that's an assassin's weapon of choice right there," Akito replied, "A blade that can be retracted would be perfect to hide your weap-"

Shing!

Suddenly, the blade popped out of the wrist once again, catching Nen and Akito by surprise.

The instant that the blade did pop out, Isao's eyes suddenly lit up as he smiled, "It takes qi to release the blade and the moment I retract my qi, it sheathes itself. I'll take this weapon."

Hearing this, Akito felt a shudder as he thought of what Isao had told him before. Meanwhile, Nen had a slightly disappointed look on his face as he criticised, "How in the world is that the right weapon for you? How are you going to practise Mago Swordsmanship with that?"

"Don't worry," Isao replied as he added, "I'm also going to take a sword."

In the next five minutes, the group met up once again, right at the entrance of the weapons room.

Shoma had a big smile on his face as he seemed to be really content with what he had found, he was carrying a wooden recurve bow that had a red bowstring and was holding onto a steel sabre that had a leather handle with a black hand guard.

"I can see why you chose that," Isao commented almost immediately as he saw the bow that Shoma had picked.

Hearing this, Shoma let out a smile as he commented, "It's the closest one I could find."

Shoma's attention was then caught by a strange slim scabbard for a sword that was hanging on Isao's back.

"Your choices are as interesting as ever," Shoma commented as he saw the looks of regret that were coming from Nen. He clearly was disappointed with Isao's choice of weaponry.

Isao let out a light smile as he pulled out the sword, "It's the sharpest sword that I could find."

The instant that he pulled it out, a simple katana was brought into view. Its shiny silver that clearly mirrored the flames of the torches could be seen. Its handle was made of wood with a solid brown colour.

The instant that Yasu saw the sword, he immediately realised why his brother was so disappointed at Isao's choice of sword. The katana that Isao was holding had come without a hand guard.

"Let's make our way out," he said nevertheless, "the meeting will probably start sometime soon."

With this, the group opened the doors and made their way out. The instant that they made their way outside, they saw a man in his twenties talking to the guards. He seemed to have a special token in his hand and he handed it to the guard.

It seemed to be a token that would allow him to pick a weapon from the weapons room as the guards then told him that he could enter. As the guard told him that, the door of the weapons room opened and Isao's group could be seen coming out.

The soldier seemed to pay them no mind as he simply made his way into the weapons room but just as they walked past each other, he suddenly turned around, his eyes fixed on the bow that Shoma had hanging on his back.

"Stop!" he suddenly shouted.