Chapter 50 - A Glimpse

"Hey. Nice ring." Kotone comments.

"Yeah… Thanks." Fumio answers awkwardly.

"Huh… Looks expensive." Kotone becomes suspicious.

He then recalls that Red too has a thumb ring which looks like Fumio's ring, only without the gemstones.

"Yeah. Spent a fortune on it." Fumio quickly comes up with something to say.

'Pocket Ring', as Red named it, is the gift Fumio received the day he discovered how to use spiritual energy. It is a variation of Red's own Storage Ring.

Unlike Red's plane storage ring made of solid platinum and that only has one large pocket dimension, Fumio's ring has many small sized pocket dimensions.

As for why Red needed to make Fumio's ring differently to his own, it is because Fumio have not awakened his spirit sense yet.

Red, who has already activated his spirit sense, can visualize and organize the objects in his pocket dimension, while Fumio cannot. So, to bypass Fumio's blindness in using an ordinary storage ring, he made different dimensional pockets for Fumio to assign those pockets with whichever types of objects Fumio would want to store.

Fumio's ring, having twelve small gemstones like topaz, amethyst, diamonds, garnets and corundum, embedded in them  that contain space storage seals, means he can store twelve different types of things.

This feature is what made Fumio dub his ring as his 'real-life game inventory.'

"May I take a look?" Kotone asks.

Fumio then channels the small spiritual he absorbed since his sparring with Red ended, to his brain, immediately calming him down even for a bit. The spiritual energy flowing to his head also makes his thoughts faster.

"Why don't we make a bet?" He quickly comes up with an idea.

"What's on your mind?" Kotone realizes that Fumio wants to wager.

"We haven't really finished our sparring two weeks ago in Chofu, have we?" Fumio asks.

"… Yeah?" Kotone steps back in caution.

"Well…" Fumio tosses his wooden sword to Kotone, which Kotone catches, and, "If you can give me a good spar, I'll allow you to have a closer look of my ring.", he proposes.

He already knows that Kotone noticed that his ring has something to do with his 'magic trick', but he also knows that she cannot do anything with that information. And him, having the need of a sparring partner, decides to trick Kotone into agreeing to be one.

"It's obvious that you're much stronger than me. Will you hold back?" Kotone asks.

"Yes. I'll suppress my speed and strength to match yours." Fumio says.

The challenge of doing what he is suggesting is a welcome distraction for him after two weeks of doing the same things. He misses the freedom and control he has on purely using his physical capabilities after suffering the uncomfortable focus of infusing his body with spiritual energy all the time.

"Nice… Here I come." Fumio, with a short warning, rushes to Kotone. 

<>

"Ugh… While this ring is nice, it's not worth fighting and getting beat up for a few hours for it." Kotone tosses Fumio's ring and grunts bitterly.

"Heh.. I have to say, you're getting used to the pain of blocking attacks." Fumio proudly smirks as he slides the ring back on his thumb.

Kotone is lying on her back against the grassy backyard, feeling exhausted after two hours of training with Fumio. Fumio meanwhile, is feeling fine as every breath he takes, takes in a bit of spiritual energy, helping to fuel himself.

"I feel bad…" He sighs as he looks at the reddened arms of Kotone she used to block his strikes.

"But why didn't you just ask to stop instead of fighting me until you're this exhausted?" He asks.

"I have too much energy in my body. Where else can I spend them? Running around from city to city became a chore." Kotone complains.

"Boss didn't teach you any kata?" Fumio asks.

"Kata? No." Kotone shakes her head.

"Ah… I knew it. So that's why you're formless." Fumio nods.

While he finds Kotone's brand of swordsmanship cool and a challenge to deal with, with it being wild, unpredictable, and efficient, he realizes that such swordsmanship borne out of pure fighting or sparring, is difficult to practice if its practitioner is left to their own devices; just like Kotone.

She does not know how to practice her swordsmanship without a sparring partner.

"Formless?" Kotone asks.

"Yeah. Aside from basic blocking and sword strikes, you have no style. But it's cool. Hard to practice though. You should ask boss for some sword exercises." Fumio suggests.

"I'll do that." Kotone welcomes it.

"Still, I can't believe that just three? Four months ago, you never held a practice sword before. You can probably defeat some members in Hasegawa who have been practicing the sword their entire lives." Fumio shakes his head.

"Am I that good?" Kotone is surprised.

"Yeah. But I'm just talking about sparring, not  a real sword duel." Fumio says.

"Duh. Of course. I've never even held a real sword before." Kotone scoffs.

"Heh…" Fumio chuckles in approval at how easy Kotone admits her inexperience.

"Still. What kind of training did you go through with boss? You dodge attacks really well." He asks.

"Don't want to talk about it." Kotone shakes her head and she looks back at the sky.

"Come on. I gave you tips. It's really interesting because you have to have been hit many times by boss to learn to have that tight defense. But then again, you're not used to getting hit either. So, it's confusing." Fumio complains.

"It's not anything special…" Kotone hesitates a bit, before deciding to share.

She then sits back up to tell Fumio more about her training.

"He hit my pride instead. In addition…" 

…

…

…

"So… Lipstick, huh?" Fumio nods.

Kotone however sees that Fumio's face is twisted ugly, an obvious sign that Fumio is stifling at least a belly laugh.

"Yes." Kotone nods seriously.

Fumio looking at how serious Kotone's face is, "PUHAHAHAHAHAHA!", can no longer hold it in and bursts out laughing.

"It's not that funny." Kotone rolls her eyes, not even embarrassed.

"I mean, it isn't but… Man. Ain't that fresh? To force you, someone who would never have otherwise learned how to fight, somehow work hard into being capable of fighting. Ah. Boss is something." Fumio can only imagine what Kotone's training was like.

"Still. I don't know much about make-up but if you say that they're limited lipstick from various international brands, then boss really must have used a lot of money on you." He sighs.

"Yeah. I don't even want to think about it." Kotone chuckles, remembering the day that Red used the most lipstick on her.

"Still. It didn't take long before I no longer cared about the make-up. I just wanted to hit him. Imagine, every day, trying to swing at him, while being hit, is demoralizing. And by the end of the day, all I get is a brush of my sword to his sleeve as a reward." She sighs.

"And after watching your sparring with him earlier, I realized that I never had the chance of hitting him at all." She lays back down on the grass.

"Awwww… Buddy~ You're not the only one who hasn't landed a single hit on him." Fumio consoles.

"You haven't either?" Kotone is in disbelief. "But… That doesn't make sense…"

"It makes sense… B-" Fumio suddenly stops talking and he snaps his face towards the direction of the forest, his eyes are distant as if trying to look through the trees.

"What's wrong?" Kotone is alerted.

"Something's happening." Fumio says as he takes a deep breath.

"Let's go take a look." He then stands up, urging Kotone to do the same.

The two then start to run to the forest.

Soon, the two reach the top of the hill and Fumio stops in his steps.

Kotone has blindly followed Fumio as he quickly but carefully led the way through the thick shrubbery of the forest, and her curiosity is answered.

A few meters away from them, is a small grass clearing, shined by the light of the sun just a few minutes away from joining the horizon.

And in the middle of the clearing is Red, sitting in a lotus position with his eyes closed.

While Kotone figures that Red is simply meditating, Fumio takes a deep breath in awe.

Fumio sees that Red is glowing, with spiritual energy spiraling inwards with Red at the center.

Red currently, is in his transition between the moonlight stage and sunlight stage of his Celestial Breathing Technique.

As the moonlight is already useless in aiding him in his cultivation, he is now accustoming his body to use the sunlight.

He is still not ready to use the sunlight all throughout the day however and can only choose the hours when the sun shines the weakest. That is during the twilight hours, and during the sunrise and the sunset. 

"Hey… Something feels different in the air." Kotone whispers to Fumio, as she notices something about the atmosphere.

"Is this what you felt?" She asks.

"Yeah. And boss is right at the center of it." Fumio whispers back, but a bit surprised that Kotone feels it.

"Oh… What's he doing?" Kotone asks.

"I'm not at liberty to say. Boss will tell you when the time comes." Fumio shakes his head.

He does not want to talk about about spiritual energy to Kotone yet as he figures that Red must have had a reason of not talking about it to him when he was at the same training stage as Kotone currently is at.

"Oh… But why?" Kotone asks.

"Trust me. It's more beneficial if you know nothing about it until you're ready." Fumio assures her.

"Okay then." Kotone is about to give up when she suddenly sees that Red's skin is starting to turn pink.

Then red.

Soon, the two get scared as the situation proceeds.

"I-is he sweating… blood?" Kotone's eyes are wide in fear as she notices the red liquid running down Red's face and neck.

"I-I think so." Fumio, who has a clearer vision, sees it even clearer.

"S-should we do something?" Kotone asks in worry.

"Not yet. He seems fine." Fumio says, seeing that the spiritual energy around Red's absorption rate is gradually increasing.

A minute later, Kotone is still not assured, and Fumio is also getting uncertain about the situation.

Red had not only stopped sweating blood; the grass under him is also soaked with blood as a result of the self-cleaning seal's work on Red's kimono that prevented it from getting soaked in blood.

The two's worry are unnecessary as not much sooner, Red opens his eyes and he releases a gentle blast of spiritual energy which the two feel brush past their bodies.

"Oh?" While Kotone only feels it as a refreshing gust of wind, "Whoa…", Fumio stares in wonder and curiosity at how Red can release such thick spiritual energy. 

"Thank you for not interrupting me."

Red was almost distracted when he felt the two's arrival, worried that they might destroy his work of three days with their excessive worry. Fortunately for him, Fumio had good judgement of the situation.

Red then commands spiritual energy around him, collecting the blood, sweat and filth that accumulated on his skin, to his palm, and lights it on fire with a simple manipulation of the nature of the spiritual energy.

The two, watching Red's actions, cannot believe how convenient it looked.

"Boss… Can I learn that?" Fumio asks.

"When your elixir sea is thicker and when your control is better." Red says.

"That's not what's important…" Kotone, not knowing as much as Fumio does with Red's display, simply brushes Red's display aside as one of Red's oddities.

"Kichirou-san… What were you doing just now? And why were you sweating blood? BLOOD?" She is instead worried about Red's well-being.

"It's a way of me removing the impurities in my body." Red explains just one of the uses of his celestial breathing technique.

"Anyways. I'll teach you two in due time, when you satisfy the requirements." He promises.

The two however do not have good impressions after witnessing him sweat blood.

"I think you've seen enough. Can you two let me continue? You two are not the only ones who need to train." He asks the two.

"Oh…" The two, hearing Red talking about his own training for the first time, suddenly get inspired.

'If Boss/Kichirou-san is still training despite his level, then why can't I?'