"Sensei…"
"T-Takeo…"
"Natsuki?"
"Come out!"
Inside of a small desert cave, Yukio Sunohara was trembling while holding the sword he was given.
He knew that he had given up his authority to tap into the memories of his previous incarnations to receive their wisdom; he could feel that part of him was missing.
But he wasn't given what he was promised, he could feel his sensei's presence within the sword and was trying to bring it out.
For the past two months, ever since he had barely gotten out of his home alive, he had been trying to find a way to bring his sensei back to life.
And for the past two months, he had no luck.
Thankfully, he hadn't encountered anyone that tried to get in his way or attack him, but he hadn't been able to see Takeo again and was losing hope.
He had tried everything, even made himself bleed to see if it was a blood ritual type of deal, he had chanted multiple things, done multiple things.
"I notice that you haven't used the names of any of your prior incarnations, try that."
Yukio flinched as he heard an unfamiliar, androgynous voice come from his mind.
"W-who is that?" Yukio's expression hardened as he grabbed hold of his master's blade.
"Shuen. I'm communicating with you telepathically, I've finally figured out how to connect to your mind."
Yukio's grip on the sword loosened and he took a sigh of relief before nodding in thought. "I see… I apologise, Lord Shuen. Thank you for your input, I will give it a try."
In Yukio's soul space, Shuen's spectral eyes narrowed as he inspected the blade. As he had figured, there were four souls intertwined within, one of which being far more dominant.
That one was Takeo's.
From what Shuen could guess, the thing that Yukio would summon will be an amalgamation of Kensei, Shima and whatever the hell the progenitor was.
Though the fact that Takeo's soul was so dominant and prominent, Shuen had some confidence in his return.
As for Yukio, he shifted his attention to his sword and attempted the first name.
"Kensei…"
Nothing happened.
He tried again.
"Shima—?!"
At the instant he said that name, a spectral dark pink arm shot out from the empty space in front of him and tried to grab at Yukio's throat.
Yukio's body unconsciously jerked backward out of the way, his eyes widened.
Dark pink energy seeped out of the crack in reality, it gathered slowly where the blade had been stretched out, twisting and swirling into the shape of… something quite weird in Yukio's eyes.
Its body was all jagged, it had four large arms each the size of Yukio's entire body.
A mouth seemed to form, a large maw with multiple rows of teeth.
One singular eye flickered to life just slightly above the mouth with a bright pink sun patterned pupil in the middle that stared down at Yukio.
Four arms hung from a broad torso, long white hair with pink tinted ends spilled down its back and shoulders.
It looked wrong.
Yukio stared at it with wide, horrified eyes. "Sen…sei..?" His voice came out broken, he was at a loss.
The creature did not respond. It simply stared back at him, tilting its head slightly in a slow, unnatural motion, like a predator examining something it hadn't seen before.
Yukio's chest tightened because he knew… he knew exactly what this thing was, or… who it once was.
"Sensei…" he whispered again, his voice trembling.
The creature did not react to the name, there was no comprehension in its eye.
Yukio only saw instinct and hunger, like a beast.
The moment stretched long enough for Yukio to feel the dread settle into his stomach, Takeo did not remember him.
This is exactly what he had been afraid of.
And then the creature moved without warning, without making any intention of moving.
Four arms swung forward with blinding speed, a large amount of pale pink nature energy hardened into a jagged crescent at the palm of one arm.
Yukio barely managed to raise his arm, the crescent slashing him in half effortlessly.
It carved across his chest and shoulder in one brutal diagonal line that split flesh to bone, the force of the strike sent his frail body crashing onto the stone floor with a cry of pain.
For a moment, all he could feel was the agony of being cut in half.
Blood pooled across the cave floor beneath him.
And then, a faint pink fire burst from Yukio's body, light sunlight erupting through shattered glass.
White and pink flames raced across his torn flesh as his new tie to Shuen made its presence known.
The wound sealed itself before Yukio could properly be cut in half, muscle and bone reformed.
Skin closed up as if the injury had never existed.
Yukio's eyes regained their focus immediately as he gasped the air back into his lungs.
He barely had the time to think before the creature attacked once more.
And just like that, the creature delivered another spectral crescent into Yukio's torso, carving straight through Yukio's body at the waist.
The strike was so clean and powerful compared to the first one that there was no resistance at all. Yukio's upper half slid from his lower body and hit the cave floor with a wet thud while the other half collapsed a moment later beside it.
The pool of blood grew.
For a moment, the cave was silent.
White and pink soul flame burst violently out of both halves of Yukio's body, igniting with such intensity that the cavern walls were painted in flickering light. The severed flesh didn't heal but glued itself back together, bones knitting, organs reforming, muscle and skin weaving back into place as though an invisible force stitched him back together.
He gasped again as his body forced itself back into one piece.
Air rushed into his lungs.
The flames burned even brighter as Shuen had a bright idea.
Instead of constantly having to manually heal Yukio in the future, why not just give him his own healing powers? Why not just give him the whole loadout at this point.
The white and pink flames burned even brighter.
From Yukio's back, two small shapes began to grow.
At first they were only faint outlines, but in moments they solidified into wings. They weren't huge, but they were about the size of his arms, composed of layered feathers made of white and pink fire. The feathers flickered like fire as they shifted between solid and spectral form as the wings unfurled behind him.
They landed on being solid as Yukio staggered to his feet, his eyes glowing bright pink.
The monster moved again, already swiping an arm from afar, a pale pink crescent appearing out of nowhere as it flew toward Yukio at ridiculous speeds.
But… Yukio actually managed to move this time.
His brand new wings snapped open with a burst of force, throwing his body sideways through the air just as the crescent crashed down where he had been standing, it flew past and shredded the wall behind, sending sandstone fragments across the floor.
Yukio landed hard, but kept his footing thanks to the principles he had been following due to Takeo.
He didn't quite understand what was going on, but he figured the big bird had given him some sort of power up.
The monster lunged forward, Yukio noticed four large jagged blades sticking out of its body.
At the moment Yukio noticed, the creature ripped each of them out and held one in each hand.
It spun.
The monster moved like a swirling mass of cutting steel, but Yukio's body reacted before his mind could catch up. His wings beat once and he shot backward through the air, barely avoiding a slash that split the stone wall behind him in half.
From within Yukio's soul space, Shuen hummed in thought.
"It seems he does not have an affinity to flames like I do. Though, our connection will likely give him that affinity. Perhaps that wind affinity he's using so well here to fly around like a pest will work hand in hand with my flames…"
Shuen figured that Yukio's apparent affinity toward wind nature energy would work well with his flames due to wind being able to amplify them.
Either way, Yukio raised a hand.
A single white feather detached from his wings.
Then another.
Then dozens.
Yukio's pink eyes flashed and all of the feathers shot forward like arrows.
He didn't know what he was doing, but he gave it a shot nonetheless.
The feathers struck the creature's body and exploded, bursts of white and pink flame erupted across the monster's chest and shoulders and the projectiles detonated on contact. The blasts did not manage to destroy it, but they forced it to hesitate for a moment.
Yukio did not stop moving, he snapped his fingers instinctively. Another feather flew forward and floated just behind the creature's body.
He snapped once more and vanished.
For a split second, Yukio was nowhere to be seen.
And then he reappeared behind Shima in a flash, the feather he had teleported to crumbled into ash as the teleportation anchor dissolved. Yukio's body moved without hesitation as he swung his frail leg forward in a desperate kick aimed at the creature's back.
The impact did not move it.
But Yukio's wings flared again, blasting him backward before the creature could retaliate.
Shuen nodded from within. "He learns quickly, I didn't even need to give him a rundown of what the feathers can do."
A massive sword whistled through the air and crashed down where Yukio had just been standing.
He hit the ground hard, skidding across the cave floor, not having learned how to properly use the wings yet.
His body was shaking from fear.
From adrenaline.
From the overwhelming realization that he was somehow fighting back.
After he had given up his authority, after not having eaten or trained for two months straight…
All of this… was it purely due to Shuen? Or was Yukio naturally this talented without his authority?
He didn't know, and he had bigger fish to fry.
The creature advanced again, all of its movements were different.
Yukio quickly realised that it was moving.
He had heard that his sensei was quite the genius.
But to be this good mere seconds after coming to life…? Surely not.
This wasn't just Takeo's talent, this was a manifestation of…
Kensei.
Shima.
The strange amalgamation he had seen.
Takeo.
And finally, Yukio himself.
All of their talent, all of their skill all fused into one being with Takeo's will.
It was not only learning how to fight, its eye seemed to have more consciousness now, less like a rabid animal and more like a cold killing machine.
But there was something else in its eye.
Recognition.
Yukio's wings beat again as he forced himself back to his feet, finally deciding to pull out the sword at his hip.
His chakra immediately seeped into the blade as a faint white and pink aura ran along its edge.
The creature attacked, four arms swung at once.
Yukio moved, precisely.
The blade met one of the creature's swords, deflecting it just enough for Yukio to twist his body aside as the other three weapons carved through the space he had just been standing.
The cave echoed with the sound of steel clashing into the ground.
Yukio staggered backward after the clash, his arms trembling.
He couldn't win this, how on earth was he supposed to beat this?
"Takeo…" Yukio said weakly.
The creature froze, but not completely, as if it recognized the name, but it did not belong to it.
Yukio noticed this and tried again.
"Shima…?"
The creature froze again, the name struck something deep within its mind.
The blades in its hands lowered, the white eye with pink patterns stared down at Yukio's face.
And now, something in its expression changed.
Yukio quickly thought of a reason.
This was Takeo.
It had Takeo's will, Takeo's soul, Takeo's heart.
But its memories were gone.
It had no understanding of the name Takeo, it only responded to the name of the thing it comes from.
The sword.
The sword that Takeo had given Yukio in his final moments, the sword that Takeo's younger brother had been named after and the sword which holds all of their souls.
"Shima."
The creature's eyes widened in understanding.
It recognized the name.
It recognized the child.
"Pro…tect. Yuki…o."
A grating voice came from its throat, as if stating its purpose.
"Protect… Yu…kio."
It repeated the sentence, Yukio's heart racing in his chest.
The creature trembled briefly before it slowly started to fade away, the pink pattern in its eye remaining briefly before also fading away.
Yukio's eyes widened one last time before they softened, this was a step in the right direction.