The Assassin's Guide had never seemed so useless and mysterious at the same time.
The new chapter, titled simply "Presence Training," began with a sentence that made me stare at the book for several long seconds.
"This is a type of ability that I cannot fully explain. Worlds vary too much for a description to work in all of them."
'Translation: the author had no idea what he was writing.'
I kept reading.
"Use a blindfold, train with it, and feel the world."
"..."
That was it.
The chapter ended there.
I frowned.
"…Are you serious?" I muttered, rolling my eyes.
But, as I had already learned over the past weeks, doubting the guide was useless.
So, the next day, I began training blindfolded.
At first, I tripped over everything.
I fell, missed my strikes, and stubbed my toes against roots and rocks.
But over time, something curious began to happen.
While practicing my movements near the tree, I felt something.
A vibration around me, a strange sensation.
And then I saw.
Not with my eyes, but with something inside my mind.
Small liquid veils danced through space.
I could sense the birds perched on the trees, practically a 360-degree sixth sense around me.
These veils took the shape of each creature's silhouette.
I noticed they had colors, and from those colors, I could understand the emotions they were feeling.
For example, animals generally had a soft green as their predominant color.
When hunting or fleeing, they had a faint orange outline around their green silhouette.
I continued using the blindfold, and as the days passed, I gained more control over this ability.
At some point, it became natural, like opening an eye and seeing.
With a bit more concentration, I could even perceive the outlines of vegetation.
The only downsides were that I needed to be still and concentrate to be able to see, and that I couldn't see from very far away, but I could increase the distance if I concentrated more.
And although it sounds strange, I need to close my eyes to "see" the presence.
─── ◆ ───
Once, while pulling the trunk with the ropes, I heard a dry crack.
It wasn't the tree falling, but it was already a sign that my efforts were paying off.
"Finally…" I said with a smile, holding myself back from removing the blindfold to take a look.
That week, I managed to stay submerged longer than I ever had before.
I was able to catch all the daggers in every throw from that day onward, it was incredibly satisfying.
But nothing compared to the night when I managed to remove the hanging bell without making any sound.
Maybe it was because of the cold touch of my sister's bell, I couldn't stop a few tears from falling, along with a silly smile on my face.
─── ◆ ───
Time passed.
Without noticing, days turned into weeks, and weeks into months.
My body changed, I felt stronger than ever, but I was still stuck trying to uproot the tree, though I could feel it was close to falling.
It was a cold night, the moonlight filtering through the trees.
The sound of the river echoed in the distance as I trained with the wooden katana, still blindfolded.
My strikes cut through the air in silence, timed by the soft sound of the bells on my belt.
"..."
But thanks to the presence, I knew I wasn't alone.
I felt something moving in the darkness.
─── ◆ ───
Third-Person POV
The Oni approached slowly, its steps light enough not to break branches or disturb the leaves.
Its pale skin reflected the moonlight, and its eyes glowed crimson.
Despite its care to remain silent, it trembled with excitement, it was clearly hungry and desperate.
The victim was distracted, blindfolded, training alone, probably some wierdo on a journey to find his martial spirit or something like that.
It advanced, crouched, ready to strike from behind.
Its tongue slid over its sharp teeth, already savoring the taste of blood in anticipation.
But as it got closer, already beside the human, something happened.
The young human's body moved, without a trace of hesitation.
A direct side punch struck the Oni's face with brutal force, shattering its lower jaw with a dry crack.
The demon staggered back, shocked, spitting fragments of teeth and dark blood.
The boy, still blindfolded, raised his wooden katana, now wrapped in something like a black flame, making the crude weapon seem incredibly sharp.
The Oni tried to roar, but only a gurgling sound came out, muffled by its broken jaw.
The human advanced without saying a single word.
With a quick slash, one of the Oni's arms was sent flying.
Three more strikes followed in the blink of an eye, leaving the Oni without arms or legs.
The creature's body collapsed, crumbling like a training dummy.
The Oni trembled on the ground, its regeneration betraying it, far slower than normal.
The human sighed and approached the trembling Oni on the ground.
─── ◆ ───
When I removed the blindfold, the Oni's body was already beginning to turn to ash.
I spent the entire night striking it, preventing it from regenerating, but unlike the first time I did this, I didn't feel completely exhausted after beating an Oni for hours until dawn.
I had just sensed the presence of an Oni for the first time.
It was peculiar, to say the least.
While the presence of animals had a somewhat liquid form, that of humans was more like a smoky outline, flowing through the air, but the Oni's…
It was like a violent, distorted flame, almost impossible not to notice.
Human presences, in the few times I had seen hunters in the forest from a distance, had more distinguishable colors than animals.
The most common color I saw in slayers was a mix of light blue strands and green strands, serenity and hope.
The first was probably due to the peace of the forest, while the second likely came from the hope of finding good prey.
Once, one of them came with a child, likely a father teaching his son the craft.
The child had white as the dominant color in his presence, indicating purity, along with faint strands of purple, indicating fear.
As for the Oni…
The flames were dark red, indicating hatred, a feeling that didn't seem to change, even when hungry, or being beaten until dawn.
The Oni was clearly terrified, but its presence didn't change until the sun rose and it began to turn to dust.
The flames diminished, and other colors appeared, its final emotions were fear and despair.
I took a deep breath, went to the river, washed my hands, and splashed water on my face.
I put the blindfold back on and returned to work.
There was still much to be done.
─── ◆ ───
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