“Show yourself Aika, I know you’re there,” he called out.
Roy looked around, with both his senses and his eyes, but couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. When no one appeared, Roy began to wonder if perhaps the old man might not be all there.
Irusaru sighed, then held out his hand, conjuring a spear of golden light roughly a foot long.
Roy’s eyes widened as he watched the Projected technique take form in the blink of an eye. The next second, the spear streaked away, as though shot from a bow, slamming into a nearby spire and drilling a hole clean through it!
A yelp sounded from near the spot where the spear had hit, and a girl seemed to materialize from thin air, falling to the ground.
“Ow!” she complained, rubbing at her shoulder where the spear had torn through her green and gold robe, leaving an angry red welt.
She glared up at the old man, sticking out her bottom a lip.
“Was that really necessary?” she asked, getting to her feet and dusting herself off.
“I told you to show yourself, and you stayed where you were,” Irusaru replied, not looking in the least bit remorseful.
“You don’t own me, old man! I don’t take orders from you!”
“Show some respect, girl!”
“You disappear for half a year and think you can come waltzing back in and tell me what to do?” the girl replied, finally turning to face Irusaru head-on.
He didn’t dignify her with a response.
Now that Roy got a good look at her, he could see that she was about his age, or maybe a year or two younger. She stood a good deal taller than the old man, at around five and a half feet, but Roy guessed that most people would tower above the barely four-foot-tall man.
Her skin was tanned, her face narrow and fine, and her body was slim and athletic. Her eyes were brown, like most in Buryoku, and her hair was pitch black. It was cut right over her eyes, with two longer strands framing either side of her face. The rest was gathered up in a ponytail that hung halfway down her back. She was prettier than most girls Roy had seen around the Shah clan, but her looks weren’t what had caught his attention.
His eyes were glued to her waist, where an Orange-Belt with four slashes of green held her robe closed. To say he was stunned would have been a massive understatement. This girl, who appeared to be no older than him, was already on the cusp of moving to Green-Belt. The leader of the entire Shah clan was only a Green-Belt.
“And who is this?”
Roy was snapped from his thoughts as the girl turned her eyes on him. She seemed a lot less angry than she had before. Either that, or she hadn’t really been upset in the first place.
“This is Herald Leroy. I will be taking him on as a disciple,” Irusaru answered.
“You’re taking on a disciple?” she asked, sounding both shocked and disbelieving at the same time.
“Yes, I am. Now if you will kindly move aside, I would like to get to the village. I haven’t had a proper bath in months.”
The girl just rolled her eyes but stepped aside.
“Fine, but I’m coming with you. Mother will want to know you’re back, and I’d like to warn her before you show up at her doorstep.”
Irusaru didn’t reply, instead brushing past her and continuing on his way. Roy was quick to follow but was surprised when the girl fell into step beside him.
“Hi. I’m Tonde Aika,” she introduced herself, with a smile.
“Um, hi,” Roy replied, not really sure what to say.
No one had ever just walked up to him and introduced themselves, especially not girls his own age. What did one even say in such a situation? That seemed to be fine, because the girl just continued talking.
“You have an interesting name. I’ve never heard of the Herald clan before. Where are you from?”
“The Waterwood,” he answered carefully, not wanting to give away more than that.
“You’re from the Waterwood?” she asked excitedly. “I’ve never been out of The Crater myself. Tell me, what’s it like over there?”
Roy’s eyes flicked to the old man walking ahead of them, but he seemed content to leave them to themselves.
“Um, wet, I guess,” he answered.
Aika stuck her bottom lip out at him, bumping him lightly with her shoulder.
“Come on, that isn’t really much of an answer.”
“Leave him be, girl. Can’t you tell you’re making him uncomfortable?”
Aika’s smile vanished in an instant.
“I have a name, old man! Have you been gone for so long that you’ve forgotten?”
A snort was his only reply, but when she turned back to Roy, her smile was back in place. If anything, she looked a bit sheepish.
“Sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable. My mother says I’m way too invasive of other people’s privacy. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Roy nodded, feeling his shoulders relax just a bit as the strange girl agreed to back off.
“So, why did that grumpy old man agree to take you on as a disciple? Not to offend you or anything, but you’re pretty weak for someone your age.”
Roy winced at that, but it gave him the opportunity to ask a question of his own.
“I know I’m weak, but how are you so strong?” he asked, turning the question around on her.
Aika looked embarrassed at that, her hand subconsciously going down to her Belt.
“Hard work, I guess,” she replied.
Roy wasn’t convinced. There was no way that ‘hard work’ had been enough to get her this far at such a young age, but he wasn’t about to pry.
“What about you, though? You still haven’t answered my question,” she prodded.
“It’s my Essence type,” he replied. “I’m on the Path of Power.”
He didn’t know why she hadn’t just checked for herself. Irusaru had done as much.
“Oh wow, really?” she asked, her enthusiasm bubbling over. “What does it feel like, cultivating Power Essence? I’ve asked the old man over and over to tell me, but he refuses to explain.”
Roy opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again. How did one explain the feeling of cycling Power Essence?
“It feels sort of…electric, I guess. Like a current is running through my body. What kind of Essence do you use?”
“Light,” she replied. “That was how I was able to hide earlier, though it’s almost impossible to sneak by the old man.”
“Respect, girl! Address me properly!”
Irusaru’s voice drifted back to them. Apparently, his hearing was just as good as his eyesight.
“I’ll address you properly when you’ve earned it, you old sack of bones!” Aika yelled back.
“Boy, get away from her. She is a bad influence!”
“Mind your own business! You don’t own him!”
Another snort came back in reply, and Aika turned to grin at him.
“Just ignore him,” she whispered conspiratorially. “The old man isn’t as bad as he seems.”
Roy’s eyes flicked to Irusaru’s back, but he either hadn’t heard, or he was ignoring them. Based on what he’d seen of the old man, Roy was willing to bet it was the latter.
“Why do you two not get along?”
“What would give you that impression?” Aika asked, giving him a strange look.
“From all the shouting…?” Roy asked.
“Oh, that,” Aika said with a laugh, waving her hand as though dismissing it. “It’s just how our family is.”
“Does that mean you’re closely related?”
Clans could be massive, and although they all shared the same clan name, their relationship would be so distant that going so far as marrying one another wouldn’t even be an issue.
“Yes,” Aika replied, her grin growing just a bit wider. “That grumpy old man is my grandfather.”
26
“Well, here it is,” Aika said, gesturing to the large stone walls that seemed to loom out of nowhere.
Roy stared up at the towering walls. They were a good eighty feet tall by his estimate and appeared to be made of seamless, solid stone. That could only mean that they’d been erected by Martial Artists.