So, quite recently I found myself hooked up on Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance. No idea why mind you, I just found myself enjoying it.

I planned out the major points of this story, I even wrote this prologue but hadn't planning on posting it for a while yet. Until I realized, work has taken up too much time recently and I've not had the chance to write much at all. I've said it before, but I'm mostly focusing on what my mind is set on for the moment with how little free time work leaves me with.

In other news, I've got another 1,500 words written for Working The World With Skill. Slow and steady, n' all that jazz eh? Hopefully I'll actually get a new chapter posted some point next month...if I'm lucky that is.

Anyway, enough out of me I'll let you guys get on with the prologue.


Kamito should have expected something like this to happen, he really should have.

Despite his desperate search for Restia, he had found himself enjoying mingling with the human populace and travelling around as he searched for his missing spirit, making ends meat through a series of odd jobs that left him more experienced in a variety of different skills and content with finally finding his place in the world, instead of skulking within the shadows like the assassin he once was.

So, a year after his winning of the Blade Dance and yet another failed lead about a powerful darkness spirit he chased down in hopes of it being his beloved Restia, Kamito found himself laying on a soft bed in the comfortable silence of the private room he bought at the local hotel.

He'd just been dozing off, ready to sleep away his most recent failure in finding his rogue Vorpal Blade spirit when his senses, forged in the fires of hellish training since he was but a toddler alerted him to the massive source of divine energy rapidly closing in on his position.

It was only thanks to his senses that Kamito had enough time to throw his arms around his face to protect it as a massive horizontal tornado of wind tore its way through his room, obliterating the entire living space and sending him soaring outside, soaring rapidly through the air from even being hit by the after shocks of the tornado

His jacket sleeves were ripped apart and multiple gashes littered his crossed arms. He ignored the pain, his mind too shocked at the spirit that attacked him to really take notice of injured arms.

Because...Kamito recognized that spirit. 'Aerial!….Then that means, the one who attacked me was N-!"

Kamito never even got to finish his train of thought, while still soaring through the air, a blur shot towards him rapidly.

Kamito could see his attacker rapidly close in on him, but with how much he'd stagnated in just one year he couldn't even react in time before he was punched heavily in the stomach, launching him downwards into the floor and causing it to crater beneath his body.

"Gah!" Kamito grimaced, blood spraying from between his teeth as he struggled to his knees.

There was a thud behind him, and Kamito knew his attacker had landed. The ebony black gauntlet that he had just managed to glimpse as it plowed into his stomach confirmed his attackers identity even before he turned around.

Growling, Kamito staggered to his feet and whirled around, "The hell was that for, Naruto!?" He shouted, favouring his throbbing stomach.

There, standing a few feet from him was a boy a bit shorter than he was. He had wild, spiky blonde hair, tanned skin, three whisker marks on each cheek and deep sapphire blue eyes. A young boy, who Kamito knew was his own age wearing a pair of black cargo pants and a white sleeveless hoodie. The blonde teen's arms were covered in a set of gauntlets that were a shining ebony black in colour and were decorated by glowing, orange veins. His feet, much like his arms were covered in a pair of greaves that sported a similar colouring as the gauntlets.

The blonde boy snarled vehemently, spitting to the side of the forest clearing they were now in with disgust, "Shut up!" He roared back, black and orange divine power spilling from his enraged frame.

Kamito flinched back, as if struck.

"That was absolutely pathetic, Kamito! A year ago you would have sensed me coming from miles away and overpowered Aerial in the blink of an eye the second she got too close to your dwelling!" Naruto continued, jabbing his fingers forward and angry fashion, his fingers twitching slightly as if all he wanted to do was punch Kamit's head clean off his shoulders

Kamito sighed, "It's been a year now since I've used any of my divine power at all, never mind any of those others skills I've picked it along the way." He replied, almost casually.

Impressive considering the damage did to him, as expected Naruto supposed of the only one from the Instructional School.

Naruto found himself clenching his fists together so hard, the gauntlets provided to him by one of his spirits in use groaned from the force behind it. "A measly year and you've fallen so low! You've become a pitiful shell of what you once were." The blonde growled at Kamito, "How the hell do you expect to save Restia like this you pathetic has been!"

Kamito was silent.

Naruto eyed him for a moment, before his rage faded and he sighed morosely, "It's disgusting to see you so weak." He pointed out evenly, blue eyes betraying nothing of his inner thoughts, it merely stated as an observation.

Kamito snorted, "I'm not entirely sure why I'm so weak right now Naruto, to be perfectly honest." He replied after a moment. "Ever since I lost Restia, I've felt like a lesser being, like someone his ripped a part of me out and left me trying to hold myself together with my two arms."

There was a whistle, and instincts ingrained from his earlier years just barely allowed Kamito to swerve to the right as two elaborate and entirely different swords stabbed into his previous position.

Landing on his back, Kamito switched his eyes between the two swords and the blonde who launched them at him.

Then Naruto spoke again, "Spirits of Blades, I release you from the contract roam the world as you please once more." It was spoken casually, but the blondes voice deepened as he spoke words of power, divine energy saturating the clearing.

Turning on his heel, Naruto began to walk away. "Take them, Gladius and Falchion always preferred you anyway back at the Institute." The blonde said, "I shouldn't need to say this out loud, but if I ever see you drowning in despair like you have been, to the point where you're just coasting through life without living, I'll kill you and scatter your ashes to the wind."

Despair? What did he mean? Kamito had no idea what Naruto meant. Sure he was sad that Restia had left him, but he was going to get her back, he wasn't despairing anything!

Despite once being Naruto's superior, despite being crowned the strongest blade dancer just a year ago, and despite having once had a spirit that had more power than all of Naruto's combined….All Kamito managed was to utter a single question.

"...Why are you giving me these two spirits, Gladius and Falchion have always been your strongest spirits besides Thanatos."

Naruto never even paused as he continued walking out of the clearing. But Kamito did get his answer. Naruto swung his arm, a blade of ephemeral beauty manifesting in his hands. Katimo's keen eyesight allowed him to take in every single detail and he gasped.

Such power, even more than Restia!

It was an unnaturally beautiful sword, the blade a gleaming silver white with gold and turquoise trim in the middle. It a golden hilt and cross guard with a shining turquoise gem at the pommel and two more spread across the middle of the blade.

No, to call it just unnaturally beautiful was an insult. Kamito had never seen anything like it. He wasn't shocked though when Naruto swung the blade and unleashed an obsidian wave of black and orange power shaped like a curved blade, annihilating all the trees in front of the blonde as he continued on his way.

When Naruto left, and Kamito could no longer sense him in the area the once strongest blade dancer collapsed on his backside shakily, taking a deep calming breath. "His power has grown tremendously since I last saw him." He muttered to himself, "Even Aerial has quite a bit of knock out power in her now…...how hard have you been training since we last saw each other I wonder." Kamito mused in thought.

...Kamito wasn't sure if he could beat Naruto as he was now even when he was the strongest blade dancer Ren Ashbell. He'd really only seen Naruto's new sword and the power boost Aerial had gained since he last saw the low tier wind spirit...But even back at the institution, Naruto had been nipping at his heels constantly for the number one assassin spot.

Naruto with a year of training on him while he stagnated somehow, left him wondering if he could even catch back up and retake his lead again.

For now though, Kamito would settle for being number two. Two always worked out best for him anyway, he mused silently with a grin eyeing the two sword spirits that were still stabbed into the ground where Naruto left them...He was much stronger as a dual wielder than he was with a single blade after all.

He rose one arm, his divine energy rising up like a joyous puppy after being told it was time to go outside and play, it was weakened yet powerful still, a conundrum Kamito realized with certainty that Naruto was getting at when he called him pathetic.

How had he never even noticed this happening? Or to be more exact, how bad he had gotten.

"Noble sword spirits, sealed within these blades of purest steel…"

He'd have to fix that.


I didn't reveal much at all here, but I revealed enough. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of Seirei Tsukai will have a good idea what has happened. I'm sure many of you are thinking he has taken Jio's abilities...but he hasn't. He has taken a bunch of his spirits though.

I bet a bunch of you piece this together easily enough, it's kind of obvious in a way what has happened here.

Anyway, just a short prologue beginning to two years before canon starts. Where Naruto, the rival of Kamito kicks his ass into gear and gives him a couple of spirits that will help him pick up the shredded pieces of himself he left behind.

Next chapter, will be around the time canon begins, but it won't be following the same timeline for the most part except for a few general acts because I plan on going a few different routes.

I have a spirit rank reference guide and Naruto's current power/spirits/abilities written down on an ability sheet. These are Naruto's capabilities the moment next chapter begins, if you guys want me to though I'll post the guide. It does contain a few spoilers though, not many mind you just general abilities, names, levels of spirits and so on.

Anyway, been a nice little piece to write but I'm going to bed. Work calls in the morning, sadly. Later guys.