To Slice The Wind

Rise

There was darkness. It was the empty void that you would see when you shut your eyes, except now, Arakan existed within the space. He could see his coarse fingers, feel the kimono he donned and sense the ground his foot came in contact with. As he took a few steps forward, the pitch darkness that surrounded him continued to envelope him. There was no sign of light at all, it was almost although he was submerged in the depths of the sea. However, something was bothering him. A putrid, rotting smell began to trail him as he strolled forward. The stench became stronger the harder he tried to get away from it. Arakan then felt two tight clasps that tightly gripped his heels.

"Son... How could you let me die! I have never once abandoned you! You parent murderer!"

"Have you forgotten how you ran away when they caught me? How could you do that to your own mother? You coward!"

The two sets of voices came from behind his foot, as he slowly rotated his head in immense fear, he caught a glimpse of what was preventing him from moving away from that spot and where the stench was coming from. It was Arakan's father and mother, both of their faces pale as if every drop of blood had been drained from their flesh, their eyes rolled back revealing their white eyeballs and they both wore a wide smile that stretched across their ears revealing a sinister grin, revealing rows of yellow teeth that presented itself to Arakan.

"ARGHHHHH!! NO! GET AWAY FROM ME! GO AWAY! HELP PLEASE! GOD SAVE ME! I DIDN'T KILL YOU TWO! I DIDN'T! I SWEAR!"

Splash! Arakan instincts pushed his body upwards, his eyes almost popping out of his sockets as his bated breath was leaving his nose and mouth rapidly. He spun to the right and left before clumsily ambling forward and collapsed to the ground. Behind him on the surface of the floor panels, a huge portion of the ground he laid his back on that night was soaked in his sweat. His face however, was drenched with water. Realising that there was a figure standing behind him, he swiftly shifted his body to face it, his hands, legs and back grounded to the floor while his eyes in tears gazing at the blurry silhouette of the person in front of him. The room was dim after all, only having a small, dying lantern at the left corner of the room. After a few seconds, he recognised the figure, it was Fyodor. His huge stature was instantly recognisable and his fingers were wrapped around a bucket of water that was about one third filled, the rest had landed on Arakan's face. He had a rather confused look as he scrutinised Arakan, who was behaving like an insane man.

"Aracchi... You really were struggling in that nightmare. Even screaming in your ear couldn'twake you up. Scary!"

"Aracchi? Who's that?"

"Huh, you of course! It's your new nickname... Catchy isn't it?"

The sun has yet to rise, but Fyodor was already up. His beaming voice dispelled Arakan's grogginess as he left the room. Frightened by the nightmare he just had, Arakan got up and briskly followed Fyodor. Outside the small shop, the skies were still dark and Kouji's snoring could be heard from the other side of his room's door.

"Fyo... It's still too darn early to do anything. Why are we up for?"

"To train of course! While your rivals are still asleep, you are awake pushing past your limits. It gives you the psychological edge over them. Let's get going already."

Although the reasoning sounded ridiculous as the same training could be done after the shop closed, Arakan somehow understood the logic behind Fyodor's words. To practice hard while everyone else was sleeping, it sounded sensible. With that, Fyodor started running. Barefooted, he crossed past the neighboring stalls with great speed through huge, leaping strides covering long distances at once. Despite that, his steps were soundless, almost as though he never stepped on the ground. From Arakan's perspective, he looked like he was smashing his legs with tremendous force against the soil but the silence suggested otherwise.